That was good news for managers of the Titan 4 and Milstar programs, both of which are fighting perpetual criticism of being too costly and not delivering on promises made when originally developed.

Developed at a cost of more than $17 billion, the Milstar satellite constellation is designed to provide the nation's most senior military managers -- up to and including the president -- the ability to instantly and securely communicate with forces anywhere in the world.

"In the communications business, they just don't come any more important than Milstar," Brig. Gen. Craig Cooning, the Pentagon's Executive Officer for Space, said Monday before the launch. "If we go to war...we've got to have it."

The Lockheed Martin-built Milstar 2 launched Tuesday is an updated version of two Milstar 1 spacecraft sent into orbit from the Cape in 1994 and 1995.

Two more of the $800 million spacecraft are scheduled for launch on Titan 4 rockets for a total of five satellites.

A sixth was planned but the first Milstar 2 satellite was lost in April 1999 because of a software error loaded into the Titan 4's Centaur upper stage. That caused the booster to fly off course some nine minutes after liftoff and eventually placed the Milstar into a useless orbit.

The $1.2 billion satellite delivery mission began at 4:20 p.m. EST (21:20 GMT) and ended with spacecraft separation from the Centaur upper stage at 10:55 p.m. EST (03:55 Wednesday GMT).

In between it took the combined effort of two solid rocket boosters, two engines on the Titan 4B first stage, a single engine on the Titan 4B second stage and three burns of the twin-engined Centaur upper stage to place the giant communications satellite into its proper orbit.

"With this launch, Titan again proves its unrivaled capability in providing access to space for our nation's most critical payloads," G. Thomas Marsh, president of the Lockheed Martin division that builds the Titan 4B, said in a prepared statement following launch.

After a period of check out and tests, the Milstar 2 is targeted to become operational in June and run for 10 years from its perch high over the equator.

Tuesday's launch was the 31st of a Titan 4 model since the first was shot from the Cape in 1989. More specifically, the rocket used for the Milstar launch was a more powerful and modern version known as a Titan 4B, of which nine have now flown.

Built by Lockheed Martin, there have been 21 launches of the Titan 4 from Cape Canaveral and 10 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The rocket originally was developed to replace the Air Force's reliance on NASA's Space Shuttle, giving the military "assured access to space" following the 1986 Challenger disaster.

However, since that maiden flight in 1989 the Air Force's ability to economically and routinely launch Titan 4's has been severely challenged, with launches delayed for months by technical problems -- including one infamous example in which the rocket began to rust out at the Cape's seaside launch pad and had to be replaced.

Eventually the payloads flying atop Titan-class boosters will be transitioned to the new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle family that includes the Delta 4 and Atlas 5.

But when a Titan 4 roars off the launch pad, as it did Tuesday afternoon, it is a spectacle of sight and sound that has the phrase "worth the wait" ringing in your ears.

Towering more than 19-stories -- taller than a Space Shuttle -- the Titan 4B's two solid rocket motors left a brilliant white plume of smoke trailing behind as it climbed into a clear, deep blue sky.

That sight was followed by the deep rumbling sound of the boosters sweeping over Florida's Space Coast, a noise that is distinctly different in pitch from the similar-sized shuttle booster rockets used by NASA.

The launch was particularly significant to Forrest McCartney, a respected veteran of the aerospace community who is Lockheed Martin's top manager here. He is retiring from the company and Tuesday's mission was his last.

McCartney's contributions to the space program include work on the original Corona spy satellite, overseeing construction of the shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg and directing the Kennedy Space Center in the post-Challenger era.