Category:Saturn V

The first stage of the Saturn V was fitted with five J1 engines. Development of the J1 had started as a military project, to power nuclear missiles: however, once it was realised how small a nuclear warhead could be made, the J1 was overpowered, and the design was turned over to the civilian agencies.

To save time, the Saturn V launcher was developed in parallel with the early parts of the Apollo project. This meant that to begin with, the S5 wasn't yet available for launches, which had to be done with

The first Saturn V launch didn't take place until November 1967 (Apollo 4), an uncrewed launch of the complete Saturn 5 "stack", with performed faultlessly.

Saturn V facts

• Making a rough model of the Saturn V (e.g. using a construction set) is made easier by the fact that the widths of the three stages are approximately in the ratio 3:2:1.
• To test the gantry and other systems, NASA built a full-size mockup of the Saturn V. This had different markings. Since the mockup was easier to photograph (no fuel boiloff fumes), many of the best reference images of the Saturn 5 are actually pictures of the "dummy". Consequently, many authoritative references get the real Saturn 5 markings wrong.

• The five engines at the bottom of the first stage burn around a ton of kerosene every second.
• In order to force this much fuel through the pinhole-sized holes in the back of the rocket nozzle, each engine is driven by a turbine compressor strong enough to power a decent-sized helicopter.
• The fuel is first forced through thin tubes lining the rocket nozzle. This preheats the fuel amd cools the nozzle, preventing it from melting in the extreme heat of the rocket flame.
• One of the upper separator rings is lined with the electronics that make up the launch flight computer. Once the Saturn V is launched, the rocket is fully automatic until it reaches space, with its rocket nozzles steerable by the computer to keep the rocket on its predefined flightpath.
• To minimise the number of independent systems that could go wrong, the five main rocket engines don't have a separate hydraulic fluid system for their steering gimbals. Instead, some of the high-pressure rocket fuel is tapped off to power the hydraulics using a system of valves.

• After the Apollo missions, the Saturn V was used to launch Skylab into orbit (May 1973).