Swords Into Plowshares

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States bound two powerful nations to a fearful balance of guided missiles and possible nuclear destruction, yet it also triggered the greatest adventure in human history. The Titan II was an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to deliver nuclear weapons across oceans to the military and civilian population centers of a nation believed to threaten the country’s survival. A reliable weapon of the Cold War, the Titan was decommissioned in 1987. That same reliability also made this rocket a likely choice as a launch vehicle for the Gemini missions in 1965 and 1966, and the Titan II helped keep the Gemini astronauts safe, though whether it did the same for everyone else can never really be known.

Florida · United States