The final Titan IVB rocket blasted off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base this week, signaling the end of the Titan line that started in 1959. The Titan IVB heavy-lift booster on Oct. 19 launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload into orbit. In all, USAF has launched 39 of the Lockheed Martin-built Titan IVs—12 from Vandenberg and 27 from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. The final Cape Titan IVB launch took place on April 29, 2005. Col. Michael Baker, launch programs director for Space and Missile Systems Command, noted that the Titan team was “confident” it would “deliver one final mission success for the nation.”
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.