Page 22 - Apollo Moonships

20 on board apollo moonships
THE TALLEST
The 363-foot-high Saturn
V is the tallest rocket ever produced. To assemble the rocket and prepare it for launch, NASA built the biggest two-story building in the world. Once the rocket was ready for launch, it was placed standing on an enormous mobile platform—the crawler transporter—that moved slowly to the launch pad placed
3.5 miles from the assembly building.
FIRST STAGE POWER
The S-IC first stage produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust; a modern fighter only produces 23,500 pounds of thrust.
SECOND STAGE ACCELERATION
The S-II second stage propelled the rocket’s payload over 15,000 mph in only 150.7 seconds of burn time.
A MIGHTY MACHINE
Although it has been almost five decades since it
flew for the last time, the Saturn V remains the largest and
most powerful operational launch vehicle ever built. Only the heavy–lift rocket Energia, developed by soviets in the 1980’s, was slightly more powerful, but it only performed two test flights and was never fully operational. Many of the Saturn V records and capabilities prevails unbeaten up to date, and some of them were really impressive: the rocket was 60 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty on its pedestal and weighed 13 times more; the combined thrust generated by the five F–1 first stage engines was 330 times superior than a modern jet fighter such as the F–22 Raptor, this energy is equivalent to the power produced by 85 Hoover Dams; the total lift capacity of the Saturn V was enough to put in Earth orbit a fully loaded Boeing 757 mid-size passenger plane or a shorter Boeing 737 in lunar orbit; the fuel and oxidizer necessary to fill the Saturn V tanks it would involve 96 railroad tank cars; the shockwave generated during Saturn V liftoff was so high that the people had to move 3 miles away to remain unharmed. The list is much longer, but ultimately all the facts and figures realize how outstanding has been the most powerful machine that humanity had never put into operation.
SATURN V EXPLODED VIEW
2 SERVICE MODULE (SM)
This unpressurized vessel housed the propulsion system of Apollo spacecraft and contained vital supplies as oxygen, water and propellant.
1 COMMAND MODULE (CM) The CM incorporated the
crew cabin (occupied by three astronauts) and was the only component of Saturn V to return to the Earth.
THIRD STAGE THRUST
The S–IVB third generated over
200 000 pounds–force, and blast the Command–Service and Lunar modules away form Earth orbit on to the moon, at almost 7 miles per second (11.2 km/sec).
Service Module
Command Module (behind the cover)
THERMAL COVER
The boost protective cover protected the Command Module during the launch phase, when the temperatures caused by the air friction reached 1 200 °F.
ESCAPE ROCKET
If the Saturn V blew up before or during launch this emergency rocket, pulled the Command Module to
a safe distance and enough altitude to operate its landing parachutes. The emergency rocket only was useful below 19 miles of altitude. In normal conditions, it was discarded 3 minutes and 18 seconds after launch.