Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Saturn V

The Saturn V (pronounced "Saturn Five") was an American expendable man-rated rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled booster, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload. It remains the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operational status from a height, weight and payload standpoint.

The largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors. Von Braun's design was based in part on his work on the Aggregate series of rockets, especially the A-10, A-11, and A-12, in Germany during World War II.

Montage of all 13 Saturn V launches

 The F-1 engines of the S-IC first stage dwarf their creator, Wernher von Braun.

The Apollo crew who never flew. Celebrating the bravery and sacrifice of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee of Apollo One. Freedom (from Earth) isn't free.

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2 comments:

  1. Jérôme ChauvetFebruary 16, 2011 at 2:59 PM

    This is my first time ever I see a photo of someone standing near the engines of a space rocket.

    That's huuuuuuuuuuuuuge!

    Space rockets look however so tiny when the Earth is in the background... Aren't we crazy to try and conquer space anyway?

    I guess we are.

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  2. Steven ColyerFebruary 16, 2011 at 3:25 PM

    Of course we're crazy. Have you seen the news? :-)

    My personal feeling is that everyone is at least a little crazy, it's just a matter of degree.

    As the drill instructor at Great Lakes told my Dad and the other recruits training to beat Hitler and Tojo back in the day:

    "Everyone's crazy except you and me, and I'm not too sure about you!"

    It's the hormones. They're small but powerful, and easily unbalanced. That is the life, yes?

    And heck yeah it's important we explore space, and live there some day. There are so-o many things that can go wrong with this beautiful but very exposed 8000 mile diameter of rock we live on, so much that can wipe us out.

    The more planets we're on, the greater the odds our species will survive.

    But when I look at the antics of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen I must ask myself: should it? :-)

    ReplyDelete