Saturn V
An aerial view of Apollo 8, the first manned Saturn V (NASA)
Apollo 8 standing on the pad awaiting launch. (NASA)
    Flying to the moon required a huge rocket. Just how large depended on the method used to get there.
    The first method involved launching a titanic rocket, flying it to the moon, landing it backward, then take off again and fly back to Earth. This rocket was designated Nova (Latin for "new", also the astronomical name for the death of a star). Although this seemed to be the simplest approach and it came the most readily to mind, it was full of problems. Landing this rocket on the moon would be equivalent to launching an Atlas rocket backward, or backing a semi truck through the Holland Tunnel at the same speed as the commuters. Also, the problem of launching this huge rocket itself proved a rather troublesome one. Simply the shock waves formed at liftoff of the booster was sure to destroy anything nearby, not to mention the destruction that would reign supreme if the rocket exploded in flight.
    Werner von Braun favored a different approach. This was Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR). Two smaller rockets would be launched into orbit, one filled with fuel, the other topped with the spacecraft. They would rendezvous in Earth orbit, and the rocket filled with fuel would transfer it to the spacecraft. Then the spacecraft would light its engines and head to the moon. This would not require a rocket as large as the Nova, and von Braun's Saturn rocket could be used for this purpose. But, this presented the problem of transferring the fuel in space. What if fuel froze in the transfer? Or boiled? What if the fueling rocket exploded during transfer? Any of these problems would easily spell disaster.
    But there was a third option that sounded far more rational that the first two. This was known as Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, or LOR. One smaller rocket would be launched with a mothership and a lander on board. These two components would fly to the moon docked together. When the combination reached the moon and dropped into orbit the lander would detach and land on the moon while the mothership stayed in orbit. After the lander's mission was complete it would return to the mothership, then be jettisoned. The mothership would fly back to Earth and land in the ocean. This eliminated the need for both a gigantic rocket and a simultaneous launch and subsequent fuel transfer. But, then there was the problem of rendezvous in space. Could it be done?
    NASA thought so. Eventually the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous method won. (The change of von Braun's support to LOR was likely a large factor.) The tricky concept of rendezvous could be solved through extensive tests in Earth orbit, undertaken with success in Project Gemini. An American spacecraft would fly to the moon atop a smaller Saturn rocket.
    Just because the Saturn was smaller than the Nova didn't mean that it wasn't still enormous.
    The test Saturn I and 1B were huge rockets, towering over anything launched so far by the United States. But, they would not fly men to the moon. That was a job for the leviathan Saturn V, 120 meters tall. Its first stage, the S-IC, was powered by five F-1 engines, each the size of a pickup truck! The first stage alone towered as tall as the Saturn 1, Block 1, the first Saturn design to fly.
    Above the S-IC was the S-II, powered by five J-2 engines, using liquid oxygen and hydrogen for fuel.
    A tapered adapter linked the S-II to the third stage, the S-IVB, powered by a single J-2 engine. The S-IVB had the important task of propelling the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. The single J-2 engine was restartable, and burned liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The S-IVB was also used as the upper stage for the Saturn 1B.
    Atop the S-IVB was a shroud that housed the Lunar Module. Above the shroud was the Command Service Module stack, far above the ground.
    Form-fitting around the Command Module was the Boost Protective Cover (BPC). It was made out of fiberglass and cork and protected the CM from the heat of launch. Each BPC was custom tailored to each CM for the best possible fit.
    At the very top of the sky-scraping fully-stacked Saturn V was the extremely important Launch Escape System (LES). In the event of a catastrophic failure of the Saturn during flight or just before launch, this solid rocket engine would scream to life and pull the Command Module clear of the doomed rocket. This system was extensively tested, but it was fortunately never needed. However, in the 1980s a similar system atop a Russian Soyuz-T spacecraft saved the lives of three cosmonauts when their rocket exploded beneath them.
    In order to build the colossal Saturn V, a new means of constructing the rocket had to be devised. After the first and second stages were completed, (the largest of which, the S-IC, was built in New Orleans), they were shipped by barges to Cape Kennedy. The third S-IVB stage was flown to the Cape by an ungainly cargo plane, the Super Guppy. The stages were then taken to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where they were attached together in the vertical position and then taken to the launch pad.
    The Saturn V rocket was the largest rocket ever to fly. Thirteen flights, (two unmanned test flights, ten manned Apollo missions, and the launch of Skylab) were nearly flawless. Three complete vehicles survive in NASA centers in Houston, Huntsville, and Cape Canaveral, along with a lone first stage at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it was built.
Saturn V Specifications
Country: USA
Organization: NASA
Stages: 3
Length: 102 meters
Diameter: 10.1 meters
Mass: 3,038,500 kilograms
Thrust: 3,440,310 kgf
Cost: $431,000,000
Launches: 13
Failures: 0