There are three remaining Saturn V rockets in existence: one at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which I saw several years ago, one at Johnson Space Center in Houston, which I haven’t seen yet, and the third is at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Guess where I was earlier this month? That’s right, Huntsville, so it was time to finally check out this Saturn V exhibit.
If you’re of a certain age, and you remember the Gemini flights, the day Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and the imperiled Apollo 13, then you might remember that it was the big Saturn V rocket that pushed astronauts off the launch pad and into space. It was the biggest of the big, and all the more amazing for being built with slide rules and paper calculations, no computers or AI, just people with brains and determination and patience.
Combined, the Saturn V rocket, the spacecraft modules, and the emergency escape system at the top of the launch vehicle stood over 360 feet tall, and weighed over 6 million pounds.
Now how the heck does something that big and heavy get off the ground? Well, it took three stages to get to the moon and back. Let’s take a look.
First Stage: Huge Engines
These were the biggest of the big: five F-1 engines that created more than 7.6 million pounds of thrust and enable the rocket to accelerate fast enough to escape Earth’s gravity.
They fired for just over two minutes, and then separated from the rest, burning up the atmosphere.
Second Stage: More Engines
The next set of five engines, all the J-2 design. fired for about six minutes, pushing the Saturn V 115 miles above the planet.
This stage was also discarded when its work was done.
Third Stage
One J-2 engine remained, burning for just under three minutes and giving the spacecraft the orbital velocity of 17,500 mph (the speed of the ISS does in orbit now, if that number sounds familiar).
The engine was then shut down while the craft was in earth orbit, reigniting when it was time to head for the moon.
Instrument Unit
The “brains” of the rocket were contained in the Instrument unit, the circular thing below outlined in blue. The unit managed rocket guidance and propulsion and monitored the health of all systems.
Here’s a detail of one section of the Instrument Unit. People designed and built this complex unit, wiring each bit into place, soldering connections, and carefully making it into the brain that Apollo needed to get to the moon and back.
Looking at this reminded me of a visit to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, where I saw the Mars rover Curiosity being hand-built and tested. The tools and techniques and material have changed over the years, but not the basic fact that each of these space-bound units is a hand-crafted design and assembly.
Three Modules at the Top
The Lunar Excursion Module was how astronauts got down to the moon, landed and explored while living there for a few days, and then returned to the command module that had stayed in orbit around the moon.
The Service Module included a liquid-fuel rocket engine propulsion system that steered the craft towards the moon, put it into lunar orbit and then propelled the command module back to Earth. It also supported the command module with electrical power, oxygen, and water.
The Command Module is where the crew lived on the way to the moon and back, and it was the only part of the the original rocket stack that went to the moon and back. The photo below is Casper, the Apollo 16 command module that took John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charles Duke all the way out there and then home again.
I remember watching the Gemini and then the Apollo launches on the TV in our living room. More than 600 million people watched in real-time as Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon on Jul 20, 1969. I was one of them. The older I get, the more impressed I am at that achievement. It was something special.
(Hope you enjoyed the virtual visit, Lyn!)
We have dreamed big, ventured on wild seas, lost sight of the land a few times and found stars to guide us on our journey. We have expanded our horizons and learned lessons.
Tom Milner, shuttle engineer
reflecting on the end of the Space Shuttle program.
I remember watching the moon landing on a little black & white TV my parents used in our travel trailer. We were camping at Sunset Beach. My girlfriend and I made a poster that said “Happy Moon Day” and went out over Highway 1 and held it on one of the overpasses. People honked and waved. I’m a little sad that my daughter didn’t experience that kind of thrill about space.
Thanks for the science lesson. I’ve been to Huntsville and KSC in Fl. Never been to JSC in Houston.
A great presentation and photographs! Coherent and provocative, especially highlighting its hand built incarnation. This human made effort, truly worthy of the word awesome.
This is a really good exhibit….I’ve only ever stopped at the rest stop in Huntsville, which has a rocket outside the bathrooms….but never stayed around long enough to see all that you saw. I should make a better effort next trip. Where is this museum?
This is at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, it’s just off one of the interstate highways, and it’s definitely worth a visit if you like things about space.
I’m sitting in a coffee house working on the next book and Rocket Man just came on! Perfect timing. Thanks for this virtual tour. It really is incredible.
Pretty cool to see it in person!