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In May 1961, President Kennedy, as a challenge to the Russians, set the goal of landing a man on the moon
by the end of the decade. Kennedy’s space program
was really a Cold War race. To get men to the moon would require a big rocket, and the future of the big Saturn rocket design was now clear. Nevertheless, many engineers and scientists thought Kennedy’s goal was impossible, but still accepted the challenge.
At the time, no one knew what the spacecraft would look like, how it would fly, or how much it would weigh. New engine designs were needed, including new materials to handle extreme pressures and temperatures, computers to control the rocket, fuel systems, and more — many unknowns that required solutions. During
the early days of development, numerous test failures occurred.
The Saturn V would be the largest flying machine ever built. Measuring 363 feet tall and 33 feet wide at its base, it weighed 6.2 million pounds fully fueled. Its five engines, the largest engines ever built, created 7.6 million pounds of thrust, which burned fifteen tons of kerosene and liquid oxygen a second for a two-and-a- half minute burn.
Saturn’s only task was to lift the command module, which carried three astronauts and the lunar module, into earth orbit. It took three rocket stages to get this payload into orbit and off to the moon. The first stage lifted the rocket to fifty miles; the second stage propelled the payload beyond Earth’s gravity; the third stage achieved Earth orbit, followed by a push of the Apollo spacecraft out of orbit and on toward the moon.
The Saturn V was an amazing feat of engineering. It took over 400,000 committed people and hundreds of vendors to create a machine with six million pieces.
Apollo 15 Saturn V roars from Pad 39A with 7.6 million pounds of thrust that shook the ground,
July 26, 1971. (NASA)
After five years of development and testing, the first unmanned spacecraft was ready to be launched in 1967. With so many critical parts, the failure of one part could delay the flight or kill the crew — the pressure was immense to get it right, while still trying to stay on schedule.
The first crew launch was in October 1968, with the Apollo 7 remaining in earth orbit, followed by Apollo 8 entering lunar orbit in December 1968. Between 1967 and 1973, a total of thirteen Saturn V rockets were launched, totaling eight Apollo lunar missions with
MAKING MORE POSSIBLE
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