“Amen” -Wernher von Braun, NASA Chief Designer for the Saturn V and Former Nazi Rocket Engineer

Earlier this month, on November 9th, was the 50 Anniversary of the launch of the first-ever Saturn V launch. This was the launch of Apollo 4, the first full mission of the Apollo mission. It was intended, as successfully tested the entire launch system. It tested the three stages of the rocket, as well as the Apollo Command Module while also carrying along a Lunar Module Test Article (specifically Apollo LTA-10R) which was basically a big weight, the same shape/design and relatively the same weight of what would be the Apollo Lunar Module (or the Lunar Excursion Module [LEM]). This launch was the first following the Apollo 1 Cockpit fire that killed all three Crew Members during a launch pad test.

Inside and below, you will find out more about the Rocket/Launch Vehicle that brought the United States and humanity to the moon for the first and unfortunately, at the time of writing this, for the last time.

The Saturn V is a three-stage, human qualified, super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle. It is, still, the most powerful, heaviest and tallest rocket ever used in the world. It is 110m(363 ft) tall, 10.1m (33 f) thick and weighs 140,000 kg (310,000 lbs) at launch. For comparison, the entire space Space Shuttle system, including the Solid Rocket Boosters and External Fuel Tank, was 56.1m (184 ft) tall, 8.7m (28.5 ft) thick and weighed 2,132,000kg (4,700,000 lbs) at launch. So, it was significantly smaller but the most important thing, at least for getting things to space, is the max capacity it can bring to space. (Technically it’s the total impulse that matters the most but lifting capacity is what we will look at as it is less technical) The Saturn V was/is able to carry a payload of 140,000kg (310,000 lbs) to Low Earth Orbit (roughly where the International Space Station lives) and 48,600kg (107,100 lbs) to Trans Lunar Injection (on the way to the moon). Again for comparison, the Shuttle could only life 27,500kg (60,600 lbs) to Low Earth Orbit, and cannot bring anything to a Trans Lunar Injection.

The Saturn V’s five Main Engines on the first stage was Rocketdyne F-1s that used a Refined Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen mixture and they burned for about 160-170 seconds before the second stage engines kicked in which were also made by Rocketdyne, but these were five J-2s. There were smaller and were made to be used in the vacuum of space in max efficiency. The J-2s burned a combination of Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen fuel for about six minutes. and finally, the 3rd stage was powered by a single Rocketdyne J-2 engine with the same mixture.

Saturn V Chief Designer - Wernher von Braun

Not to be confused with “The Chief Designer” which is the codename/nickname for Sergei Korolev, the Soviet Rocket Engineer, and designer, Wernher von Braun was the United States Chief Designer. von Braun joined the US and US Army in 1945 after the Soviets were moving on his workplace in Northeast Germany and he was unwilling to go to the Soviet Union. He and much of his team escaped to Austria and found a member of the US Army and informed him of who they were and surrender. His history, creating the V2 rocket made him an incredibly valuable person to the US and the allies. He was subsequently welcomed to the US, but this was only announced after doing everything they could to hide his past pro-Nazi work to make him more acceptable to people.

During his whole career, even before working for the Nazi’s, von Braun had a grand vision of putting humans in space, hopefully permanently. It is possibly a bit of white-washing his history, but the common understanding of von Braun is that he worked for the Nazi’s as they were the powerful government in his home country willing to spend money on rocket technology that he could use to further his studies and developments towards rocket technology to get humans to space. The Nazi regime, however, did not care for space travel and wanted to use his rockets for war. After the launch of the V2 (which is “Vergeltungswaffe 2” in German, meaning “Vengeance Weapon 2” translated) and he heard that the first rocket hit London he is quoted with (translated from German) “The rocket worked perfectly, except landing on the wrong planet.” He chose the US over the Soviets because he felt that he would have the freedom to advance his developments and studies to bring humanity to space.

von Braun originally designed the Juno I rocket that lifted the Explorer 1 to space, This was the first US satellite in space. This, however, was the year following Sputnik 1 and 2 had made it to space, and it marked the true beginning of the Space Race. This was 1958, and in only eleven years, his “pièce de résistance” and our true focus today the Saturn V brought the first ever humans to the Moon.

Launches

The Saturn V launched thirteen times in its six-year launch lifespan. It did not suffer any complete failure, however, Apollo 6, which was an uncrewed mission to test the Trans-Lunar Injection. During launch, there was oscillation that damaged the second and third stage engines so it was unable to accomplish the Trans-Lunar Injection maneuver. Luckily for the public image of NASA and the Apollo program, the Apollo 6 mission happened at the same time that Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated which really buried the failure out of the public’s eye.

Apollo 4 and 6 were the two uncrewed Saturn V launches.

Apollo 8-17 were the ten crewed Saturn V launches for the Apollo Program.

Finally, the Saturn V with its enormous lifting capability was used to bring the SkyLab, the US’s first and only space station to begin its six-year mission in space.

Obviously, the most notable Saturn V launch/mission is Apollo 11, however, my favorite and the most interesting mission for me is Apollo 10. It’s not because I am some kind of Space-Hipster, I promise, but it is because it was the ultimate dress rehearsal for the moon landing. It was an unequivocal success but it can only be described as possible, the biggest and most painful tease in the history of the world. I will probably write a specific Apollo 10 write-up but to give you a short description, the Apollo 10 mission was a full practice shot for the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. They launched normally, Trans-Lunar Injection, Retrograde burn for orbiting the moon, docking the LEM and Command Module, Undocking the LEM, burning retrograde to lower the LEM close to the moon, practicing the landing approach. However, the only rule for the mission was: “DO. NOT. LAND. ON. THE. MOON.” After the approach practice, the astronauts in the LEM were to boost up back to rendezvous with the Apollo Command Module, re-dock, then return to the Earth. The two LEM astronauts on Apollo 10, John W. Young and Eugene A. Cernan, were the people who had flown the closest to the moon without touching it. They got to see it up close and personal but did not get to land on it. Additionally, it also holds the record for the highest speed of a crewed vehicle. When returning from the moon, the three astronauts traveled 39,897km/h (24,791 mph)

End of the Saturn V

After Apollo 17, the two following planned moon missions were canned due to budget cuts and the last flight the Saturn V would see was lifting SkyLab and it’s “little” version, the Saturn-1B was charged with the 3 SkyLab missions to ferry crew and materials to and from the space station during its lifetime.

In the 1970s it was decided that the Saturn V was too powerful and expensive for the missions the US was planning on running in the near future as the Space Race had been decidedly won by the Americans and the excitement for space exploration and funding was lower than it had been since the race had begun.

Kind of hilariously in a sad way, the next human-rated launch vehicle being used by the US would be the Space Shuttle which would turn out to have less safety features, a higher failure rate, a complexity that made it impossible to fly uncrewed, a lower lift capacity and cost more money(adjusted for inflation, both in the project cost and per launch) that the master class of a space launch system that was the Saturn.

Future

In the future, NASA will be returning to crewed space flight with the simply named Space Launch System or SLS as you will hear it often referred as is more of a spiritual successor to the Saturn V. It is similar, however smaller than the Saturn V. It will have a slightly lower lifting capacity to Lower Earth Orbit but it is expected to cost about half per launch than the Saturn V cost and about 3 times less than the Shuttle. In addition, with it being a single stack, multiple stage rocket, the SLS will return to using the Launch Escape system that, if it was possible to implement on the Space Shuttle, would have surely saved the lives of the Space Shuttle Challenger crew. The first flight of the SLS was planned for late 2019 but news came out this week that it is expected to slide into 2020 for it’s earliest possible launch. Delays are relatively common in space flight but this news is something that comes as incredibly disappointing for myself and the many other people in the space community.

My Saturn V

To end this, as you may know, last week I received the LEGO Saturn V in the mail, the first mail day at my new apartment and I have been slowly constructing it while listening to Public Service Broadcasting’s The Race For Space. Note: I did a write up about they last night. read about them if you would like, Highly recommended.

Finally, I have completed the LEGO Saturn V. It stands over a meter tall, and is nothing except pure beauty and I cannot wait to have furniture in my apartment so that I can perfectly place the Saturn V as my rooms ultimate showpiece.