General Category > Space
Mission S-IC: NASA Saturn V moon rocket stage moving to Mississippi
Chieftain:
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-061616a-saturn-rocket-stage-infinity.html
une 16, 2016
— More than four decades after its mission to the moon was canceled, NASA's last-assembled Saturn V rocket stage has been launched on a journey to become a roadside attraction.
"We are putting it on display along Interstate 10, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the country. People will be able to see it as they enter Mississippi from Louisiana," said John Wilson, executive director of the Infinity Science Center in Pearlington, Mississippi.
Built to be the "business end" for the tallest, heaviest and most powerful booster ever launched, the massive Saturn V S-IC first stage was the last of its type made when it was completed in 1970. It was intended to lift off on the Apollo 19 lunar landing mission in 1973; instead, it was parked at the entrance to its assembly facility in 1978, where it has remained ever since — until today (June 16).
**SNIP**
Wow. Just wow...
:beer:
Chieftain:
Those five F-1 engines burned RP-1 (highly purified kerosene) and liquid oxygen at the rate of 2 tons a second. The five engines together produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust at full power.
Ignition sequence start began at 8.9 seconds with liftoff occurring at 0. It took the turbine powered pumps a couple of seconds to spool up to top speed, and when they did they delivered propellants to the injectors at around 10,000 PSI. The first stage burned for just over 2 minutes, and put the rest of the vehicle above the thickest part of the atmosphere, doing Mach 10 or so at staging. Once past "Max Q" the vehicle hit a bit over 4 Gs of acceleration right before Main Engine Cutoff.
The acoustic energy from all five first stage F-1 engines nearly destroyed the press building near the launch site at Cape Kennedy during the first un-manned full up launch of the vehicle for the Apollo 4 test mission. There are plenty of F-1 engine test videos online, and on the ones with sound you can hear the turbopumps howl into life as the engines roar to life...
Still the biggest and most powerful rocket engine we ever built. Consider that one entire SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with 9 Merlin engines does not produce as much thrust as one F-1 engine produced, burning exactly the same fuel and oxidizer.
There's a fellow how did some diving off the coast of Florida in the area where the Apollo Program Saturn V boosters all came down, and actually found the remains of the engines on the floor of the ocean...all torn up but still recognizable as F-1s. As awesome as this booster is, it was used for just over 2 minutes, was discarded and allowed to follow a ballistic path to re-entry and splashdown. The tanks and lighter structures burned but the engines survived mostly intact.
American technology at its pinnacle...
:beer:
Smokin Joe:
--- Quote from: Chieftain on June 18, 2016, 11:12:24 pm ---Those five F-1 engines burned RP-1 (highly purified kerosene) and liquid oxygen at the rate of 2 tons a second. The five engines together produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust at full power.
Ignition sequence start began at 8.9 seconds with liftoff occurring at 0. It took the turbine powered pumps a couple of seconds to spool up to top speed, and when they did they delivered propellants to the injectors at around 10,000 PSI. The first stage burned for just over 2 minutes, and put the rest of the vehicle above the thickest part of the atmosphere, doing Mach 10 or so at staging. Once past "Max Q" the vehicle hit a bit over 4 Gs of acceleration right before Main Engine Cutoff.
The acoustic energy from all five first stage F-1 engines nearly destroyed the press building near the launch site at Cape Kennedy during the first un-manned full up launch of the vehicle for the Apollo 4 test mission. There are plenty of F-1 engine test videos online, and on the ones with sound you can hear the turbopumps howl into life as the engines roar to life...
Still the biggest and most powerful rocket engine we ever built. Consider that one entire SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with 9 Merlin engines does not produce as much thrust as one F-1 engine produced, burning exactly the same fuel and oxidizer.
There's a fellow how did some diving off the coast of Florida in the area where the Apollo Program Saturn V boosters all came down, and actually found the remains of the engines on the floor of the ocean...all torn up but still recognizable as F-1s. As awesome as this booster is, it was used for just over 2 minutes, was discarded and allowed to follow a ballistic path to re-entry and splashdown. The tanks and lighter structures burned but the engines survived mostly intact.
American technology at its pinnacle...
:beer:
--- End quote ---
"But we should spend the money right here at home. We have plenty of problems that need to be solved right here on earth..."
Have we peed down that rathole long enough?
When I was an undergrad, I wanted to do (geological) fieldwork on Mars someday, and it looked then like we could have back then.
montanajoe:
Man I might have to take a ride down there just to see that sucker up close...
Smokin Joe:
--- Quote from: montanajoe on June 19, 2016, 04:42:58 pm ---Man I might have to take a ride down there just to see that sucker up close...
--- End quote ---
They used to have the whole Saturn 5 (or a full sized mockup) laid out at NASA at Houston at the visitor's center. I saw it in 1980. It was huge, but likely not an operational vehicle. Still, very impressive.
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