Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles
Appendix 3: Space Vehicles
SSB-10
SSB-9
ASB-11
Copyright © 2003 Jos Heyman
(HTML formatting by Andreas Parsch)

Martin Marietta SSB-10 Transtage

The Martin Transtage was a restartable upper stage used with Titan IIIA, Titan IIIC and Titan 34D launch vehicles. The Transtage used hypergolic fuels which permitted the motor to be restarted so that it could place a number of satellites into different orbits or, alternatively, sent satellites directly into the final orbit, such as a geostationary orbit.

Photo: Author's collection
Transtage-2 (1964-081A)


Stage Length Diameter Engine Fuel Thrust
14.60 m3.05 m2 Aerojet AJ-10-138 N2O4/Aerozine71,170 N

Specifications for Transtage


There was also a stretched version with a length of 5.30 m.

The Titan IIIA was used for the first four tests of the Transtage, commencing with a failure on 1 September 1964. Subsequent flights were with the Titan IIIC launch vehicle, a Titan III core with two large boosters added on the side. The first flight of this configuration was on 18 June 1965. There are records of 47 Transtage flights of which three failed. The last flight was on 4 September 1989.

The Transtage was also known by its military designation SSB-10A although this designation was probably restricted to military launches.


Back to Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 3




Last Updated: 17 March 2003