The
Saturn V (pronounced "Saturn Five") was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable rocket used by NASA
's Apollo and Skylab
programs from 1967 until 1973. In total NASA launched
thirteen Saturn V rockets with no loss of payload. It remains the
largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to
operational status from a height, weight and
payload standpoint. The Soviet
Energia, which flew two test missions in the
late 1980s before being canceled, had slightly more takeoff
thrust.
The
largest production model of the Saturn
family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the
direction of Wernher von Braun at
the Marshall
Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama
, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and
IBM as the lead contractors. Von Braun's
design was based in part on his work on the "Aggregate" series of
rockets, especially the A-10, A-11, and A12 in Germany during World
War II. The three stages of the Saturn V were developed by various
NASA contractors, but following a sequence of mergers and takeovers
all of them are now owned by Boeing.
Background
In 1957,
the Soviet
Union
launched Sputnik 1, the
first artificial satellite.
Lyndon B. Johnson—at the time
Senate Majority Leader and later
President—recalled
feeling "the profound shock of realizing that it might be possible
for another nation to achieve technological superiority over this
great country of ours." The resulting
Sputnik crisis continued, and by 1961, when
Soviet cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin orbited
the Earth aboard
Vostok 1 during
the first
human spaceflight, many
people in the United States felt the Soviets had developed a
considerable lead in the
Space
Race.
On May 25, 1961, President
Kennedy
announced that America would attempt to land a man on the Moon by
the end of the decade. At that time, the only experience the United
States had with human spaceflight was the 15-minute suborbital
flight of
Alan Shepard aboard
Freedom 7. No rocket then
available was capable of propelling a manned
spacecraft to the Moon in one piece. The
Saturn I was in development, but would not
fly for six months. Although larger than other contemporary
rockets, it would require several launches to place all the
components of a lunar spacecraft in orbit. The much larger Saturn V
had not been designed, although its powerful
F-1 engine had already been developed
and test fired.
Mission configuration
Early in the planning process, NASA considered three leading ideas
for the moon mission:
Earth Orbit
Rendezvous,
Direct Ascent, and
Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR).
A direct ascent configuration would launch a larger rocket which
would land directly on the lunar surface, while an Earth orbit
rendezvous would launch two smaller spacecraft which would combine
in Earth orbit. A LOR mission would involve a single rocket
launching a single spacecraft, but only a small part of that
spacecraft would land on the moon. That smaller landing module
would then rendezvous with the main spacecraft, and the crew would
return home.
NASA at first dismissed LOR as a riskier option, given that an
orbital rendezvous had yet to be
performed in Earth orbit, much less in lunar orbit. Several NASA
officials, including Langley Research Center engineer
John Houbolt and NASA Administrator
George Low, argued that a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
provided the simplest landing on the moon, the most cost–efficient
launch vehicle and, perhaps most importantly, the best chance to
accomplish a lunar landing within the decade. Other NASA officials
were convinced, and LOR was officially selected as the mission
configuration for the Apollo program on 7 November 1962.
Development
C-1 to C-4
Between
1960 and 1962, the Marshall Space Flight Center
(MSFC) designed rockets that could be used for
various missions.
The C-1 was developed into the
Saturn I,
and the C-2 rocket was dropped early in the design process in favor
of the C-3, which was intended to use two
F-1 engines on its first stage, four
J-2 engines for its second
stage, and an S-IV stage, using six
RL-10
engines.
NASA planned to use the C-3 as part of the Earth Orbit Rendezvous
concept, with at least four or five launches needed for a single
mission, but MSFC was already planning an even bigger rocket, the
C-4, which would use four F-1 engines on its first stage, an
enlarged C-3 second stage, and the
S-IVB, a
stage with a single J-2 engine, as its third stage. The C-4 would
need only two launches to carry out an Earth Orbit Rendezvous
mission.
C-5
On January 10, 1962, NASA announced plans to build the C-5. The
three-stage rocket would consist of five F-1 engines for the first
stage, five J-2 engines for the second stage, and a single,
additional J-2 engine for the third stage. The C-5 was designed for
the higher payload capacity necessary for a lunar mission, and
could carry up to 41,000 kg into lunar orbit.
The C-5 would undergo component testing even before the first model
was constructed. The rocket's third stage would be utilized as the
second stage for the C-IB, which would serve both to demonstrate
proof of concept and feasibility for the C-5, but would also
provide flight data critical to the continued development of the
C-5. Rather than undergoing testing for each major component, the
C-5 would be tested in an "all-up" fashion, meaning that the first
test flight of the rocket would include complete versions of all
three stages. By testing all components at once, far fewer test
flights would be required before a manned launch.
The C-5 was confirmed as NASA's choice for the Apollo Program in
early 1963, and was given a new name—the Saturn V.
Technology
The Saturn V's huge size and payload capacity dwarfed all other
previous rockets which had successfully flown at that time. With
the Apollo spacecraft on top it stood tall and without fins it was
33 feet (10 m) in diameter. Fully fueled it had a total
mass of 6.5 million pounds (3,000 tonnes) and a payload
capacity of 260,000 pounds (118,000 kg) to
LEO.
Comparatively, at , the Saturn V is just one
foot shorter than St Paul's Cathedral
in London, and only cleared the doors of the
Vehicle Assembly
Building
(VAB) by 6 ft (1.82 m) when rolled
out. In contrast, the
Redstone used on
Freedom 7, the first manned American spaceflight,
was just under longer than the
S-IVB stage,
and less powerful than the
Launch Escape
System rockets mounted on the Apollo command module.
Saturn V
was principally designed by the Marshall Space
Flight Center
in Huntsville, Alabama
, although numerous major systems, including
propulsion, were designed by subcontractors. It used the
powerful new
F-1 and
J-2 rocket
engines for propulsion. When tested, these engines shattered
the windows of nearby houses. Designers decided early on to attempt
to use as much technology from the Saturn I program as possible.
Consequently, the
S-IVB third stage of the
Saturn V was based on the
S-IV
second stage of the Saturn I. The instrument unit that controlled
the Saturn V shared characteristics with that carried by the Saturn
I.
Stages

Saturn V diagram
The Saturn V consisted of three stages– the S-IC first stage, S-II
second stage and the S-IVB third stage– and the instrument unit.
All three stages used
liquid oxygen
(LOX) as an
oxidizer. The first
stage used
RP-1 for fuel, while the second and
third stages used
liquid hydrogen
(LH2). The upper stages also used small solid-fueled
ullage motors that helped to separate the
stages during the launch, and to ensure that the liquid propellants
were in a proper position to be drawn into the pumps.
S-IC first stage
The S-IC
was built by The Boeing Company at the
Michoud Assembly
Facility
, New Orleans
, where the Space
Shuttle External Tanks are now
built. Most of its mass of over two thousand metric tonnes
at launch was
propellant, in
this case
RP-1 rocket fuel and
liquid oxygen oxidizer.
It was 138 feet (42 m) tall and 33 feet (10 m)
in diameter, and provided over 34 MN (7.64 million pounds force) of
thrust to get the rocket through the first 61 kilometers of ascent.
The S-IC stage had a dry weight of about 288,000 pounds
(131,000 kg) and fully fueled at launch had a total weight of
5.0 million pounds (2.3 million kg). The five
F-1 engines were arranged in a cross
pattern. The center engine was fixed, while the four outer engines
could be
hydraulically turned
to control the rocket. In flight, the center engine
was turned off about 26 seconds earlier than the outboard engines
to limit acceleration. During launch, the S-IC fired its engines
for 168 seconds (ignition occurred about 7 seconds before liftoff)
and at engine cutoff, the vehicle was at an altitude of about
42 miles (68 km), was downrange about 58 miles
(93 km), and was moving about 7,850 ft/sec (2,390 m/sec,
or approximately 5,352 mph).
S-II second stage
The S-II
was built by North American
Aviation at Seal Beach, California
. Using
liquid hydrogen
and liquid oxygen, it had five
J-2 engines in a similar arrangement to
the S-IC, also using the outer engines for control. The S-II was
81 feet and 7 inches (24.9 m) tall with a diameter
of 33 feet (10 m), identical to the S-IC, and thus is the
largest cryogenic stage ever built. The S-II had a dry weight of
about 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg) and fully fueled, weighed
1.06 million pounds (480,000 kg). The second stage
accelerated the Saturn V through the upper atmosphere with 5.1 MN
of thrust (in vacuum). When loaded, significantly more than 90
percent of the mass of the stage was propellant; however, the
ultra-lightweight design had led to two failures in structural
testing. Instead of having an intertank structure to separate the
two fuel tanks as was done in the S-IC, the S-II used a common
bulkhead that was constructed from both the top of the LOX tank and
bottom of the LH2 tank. It consisted of two
aluminum sheets separated by a honeycomb structure
made of
phenolic resin. This bulkhead
had to insulate against the 70 °C (125 °F) temperature
difference between the two tanks. The use of a common bulkhead
saved 3.6 metric tons in weight. Like the S-IC, the S-II was
transported by sea.
S-IVB third stage
The S-IVB
was built by the Douglas
Aircraft Company at Huntington Beach, California
. It had one J-2 engine and used the same
fuel as the S-II. The S-IVB used a common bulkhead to insulate the
two tanks. It was 58 feet and 7 inches (17.85 m)
tall with a diameter of 21 feet and 8 inches
(6.60 m) and was also designed with high mass efficiency,
though not quite as aggressively as the S-II. The S-IVB had a dry
weight of about 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) and fully
fueled, weighed about 262,000 pounds (119,000 kg). This
stage was used twice during the mission: first in a 2.5 min burn
for the orbit insertion after second stage cutoff, and later for
the
trans lunar injection
(TLI) burn, lasting about 6 mins. Two liquid-fueled auxiliary
propulsion system units mounted at the aft end of the stage were
used for attitude control during the
parking orbit and the trans-lunar phases of
the mission. The two APSs were also used as
ullage engines to help settle the fuel prior to
the translunar injection burn.
The S-IVB was the only rocket stage of the Saturn V small enough to
be transported by plane, in this case the
Guppy. Apart from the
interstage adapter and the stage restart capability, this stage is
nearly identical to the second stage of the
Saturn IB rocket.
Instrument unit
Instrument Unit was built by
IBM and rode atop
the third stage.
It was constructed at the Space
Systems Center
in Huntsville
. This computer controlled the operations of
the rocket from just before liftoff until the S-IVB was discarded.
It included guidance and
telemetry systems
for the rocket. By measuring the acceleration and vehicle attitude,
it could calculate the position and velocity of the rocket and
correct for any deviations.
Range safety
In the event of an abort requiring the destruction of the rocket,
the range safety officer would remotely shut down the engines and
after several seconds send another command for the shaped explosive
charges attached to the outer surfaces of the rocket to detonate.
These would make cuts in fuel and oxidizer tanks to disperse the
fuel quickly and to minimize mixing. The pause between these
actions would give time for the crew to escape using the
Launch Escape
Tower or (in the later stages of the flight) the propulsion
system of the Service module. A third command, "safe", was used
after the S-IVB stage reached orbit to irreversibly deactivate the
self-destruct system. The system was also inactive as long as the
rocket was still on the launch pad.
Comparisons
The
Soviet counterpart of the
Saturn V was the
N-1 rocket. The Saturn V
was taller, heavier and had greater payload capacity, but the N-1
had more liftoff thrust and a larger first stage diameter. The N1
had four test launches, each resulting in the vehicle
catastrophically failing early in the flight, before the program
was canceled. The first stage of Saturn V used five powerful
engines rather than the 30 smaller engines of the N-1. During two
launches,
Apollo 6 and
Apollo 13, the Saturn V was able
to recover from engine loss incidents. The N-1 likewise was
designed to compensate for engine failures, but the system never
successfully saved a launch from failure.
The three-stage Saturn V had a peak thrust of at least 34.02
MN (SA-510 and subsequent) and a lift
capacity of 118,000 kg to
LEO.
The SA-510 mission (Apollo 15) had a liftoff thrust of 7.823
million pounds (34.8 MN). The SA-513 mission (Skylab) had slightly
greater liftoff thrust of 7.891 million pounds (35.1 MN). No other
operational launch vehicle has ever surpassed the Saturn V in
height, weight, or payload. If the two Soviet
Energia test launches are counted as operational, it
had the same liftoff thrust as SA-513, 35.1 MN. The N-1 had a
sea-level liftoff thrust of about 9.9 million pounds (44.1 MN), but
it never achieved orbit.
Hypothetical future versions of the Soviet
Energia might have been significantly more powerful
than the Saturn V, delivering 46 MN of thrust and able to deliver
up to 175 metric tonnes to LEO in the "Vulkan" configuration.
Planned uprated versions of the Saturn V using F-1A engines would
have had about 18 percent more thrust and 137,250 kg
(302,580 lb) payload. NASA contemplated building larger
members of the
Saturn family, such as the
Saturn C-8, and also unrelated rockets, such as
Nova, but these were never
produced.
The
Space Shuttle generates a peak
thrust of 30.1 MN, and payload capacity to LEO (excl. Shuttle
Orbiter itself) is 28,800 kg, which is about 25 percent of the
Saturn V's payload. If the Shuttle Orbiter itself is counted as
payload, this would be about 112,000 kg (248,000 lb). An
equivalent comparison would be the Saturn V S-IVB third stage total
orbital mass on Apollo 15, which was 140,976 kg
(310,800 lb).
Some other recent launch vehicles have a small fraction of the
Saturn V's payload capacity: the European
Ariane 5 with the newest versions Ariane 5 ECA
delivers up to 10,000 kg to
geostationary transfer orbit
(GTO). The US
Delta 4 Heavy, which launched
a dummy satellite on December 21, 2004, has a capacity of
13,100 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit. The
Atlas V (using engines based on a Russian design)
delivers up to 25,000 kg to LEO and 13,605 kg to
GTO.
S-IC thrust comparisons
Typical acceleration curve
Because of its large size, attention is often focused on the
S-IC thrust and how this compares to other
large rockets. However, several factors make such comparisons more
complex than first appears:
- Commonly-referenced thrust numbers are a
specification, not an actual measurement. Individual
stages and engines may fall short or exceed the specification,
sometimes significantly.
- The F-1 thrust
specification was uprated beginning with Apollo 15 (SA-510) from 1.5 million lbf (6.67 MN)
to 1.522 million lbf (6.77 MN), or 7.61 million lbf (33.85 MN) for
the S-IC stage. The higher thrust was achieved via a redesign of
the injector orifices and a slightly higher propellant mass flow
rate. However, comparing the specified number to the actual
measured thrust of 7.823 million lbf (34.8 MN) on Apollo 15 shows a
significant difference.
- There is no "bathroom scale" way to directly measure thrust of
a rocket in flight. Rather a mathematical calculation is made from
combustion chamber pressure, turbopump
speed, calculated propellant density and flow rate, nozzle design,
and atmospheric conditions, in particular, external pressure.
- Thrust varies greatly with external pressure and thus, with
altitude, even for a non-throttled engine. For example on Apollo
15, the calculated total liftoff thrust (based on actual
measurements) was about 7.823 million lbf (34.8 MN), which
increased to 9.18 million lbf (40.8 MN) at T+135 seconds, just
before center engine cutoff (CECO), at which time the jet was
heavily underexpanded.
- Thrust specifications are often given as vacuum thrust (for
upper stages) or sea level thrust (for lower stages or boosters),
sometimes without qualifying which one. This can lead to incorrect
comparisons.
- Thrust specifications are often given as average thrust or peak
thrust, sometimes without qualifying which one. Even for a
non-throttled engine at a fixed altitude, thrust can often vary
somewhat over the firing period due to several factors. These
include intentional or unintentional mixture ratio changes, slight
propellant density changes over the firing period, and variations
in turbopump, nozzle and injector performance over the firing
period.
Without knowing the exact measurement technique and mathematical
method used to determine thrust for each different rocket,
comparisons are often inexact. As the above shows, the specified
thrust often differs significantly from actual flight thrust
calculated from direct measurements. The thrust stated in various
references is often not adequately qualified as to vacuum vs sea
level, or peak vs average thrust.
Similarly, payload increases are often achieved in later missions
independent of engine thrust. This is by weight reduction or
trajectory reshaping.
The result is there is no single absolute figure for engine thrust,
stage thrust or vehicle payload. There are specified values and
actual flight values, and various ways of measuring and deriving
those actual flight values.
The performance of each Saturn V launch was extensively analyzed
and a Launch Evaluation Report produced for each mission, including
a thrust/time graph for each vehicle stage on each mission.
Assembly
After the construction and ground testing of a stage was completed,
it was then shipped to the Kennedy Space Center. The first two
stages were so large that the only way to transport them was by
barge.
The S-IC, constructed in New Orleans, was
transported down the Mississippi
River to the Gulf of
Mexico
. After rounding Florida
, it was then transported up the Intra-Coastal Waterway to the
Vertical
Assembly Building
(now called the Vehicle Assembly Building).
This is in essence the same route used by NASA today to ship Space
Shuttle External Tanks.
The S-II was constructed in California
and so traveled via the Panama Canal
. The third stage and Instrument Unit could
be carried by the
Aero Spacelines
Pregnant Guppy and
Super Guppy, but may also be
carried by barge if warranted.
On arrival at the Vertical Assembly Building, each stage was
checked out in a horizontal position before being moved to a
vertical position. NASA also constructed large spool-shaped
structures that could be used in place of stages if a particular
stage was late. These spools had the same height and mass and
contained the same electrical connections as the actual
stages.
NASA assembled the Saturn V on a
Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP),
which consisted of a Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) with nine swing
arms (including the crew access arm), a "hammerhead" crane, and a
water suppression system which was activated prior to launch. After
assembly was completed, the entire stack was moved from the VAB to
the launch complex using the
Crawler
Transporter (CT). Built by the
Marion Power Shovel Company, and
still in use today for transporting the smaller and lighter Space
Shuttle, the CT runs on four double tracked treads, each with 57
'shoes'. Each shoe weighs 900 kg (2,000 lb). This
transporter was required to keep the rocket level as it traveled
the 3 miles (5 km) to the launch site, especially at the
3% grade encountered at the launch site itself. the CT also carried
the Moveable Support Tower (MST), which allowed technicians access
to the rocket until 8 hours before launch, when it was moved to the
"halfway" point on the Crawlerway (the junction between the VAB and
the two launch pads).
Lunar mission launch sequence
The Saturn V carried all Apollo lunar missions.
All Saturn V missions
launched from Launch Complex 39 at the John F.
Kennedy Space Center
. After the rocket cleared the launch tower,
mission control transferred to the Johnson
Space Center
in Houston,
Texas
.
An average mission used the rocket for a total of just 20 minutes.
Although
Apollo 6 and
Apollo 13 experienced engine failures, the
onboard computers were able to compensate by burning the remaining
engines longer, and none of the Apollo launches resulted in a
payload loss.
S-IC sequence
The first stage burned for 2.5 minutes, lifting the rocket to an
altitude of and a speed of and burning of propellant.
At 8.9 seconds before launch, the first stage ignition sequence
started. The center engine ignited first, followed by opposing
outboard pairs at 300-millisecond intervals to reduce the
structural loads on the rocket. When thrust had been confirmed by
the onboard computers, the rocket was "soft-released" in two
stages: first, the hold-down arms released the rocket, and second,
as the rocket began to accelerate upwards, it was slowed by tapered
metal pins pulled through dies for half a second. Once the rocket
had lifted off, it could not safely settle back down onto the pad
if the engines failed.
It took about 12 seconds for the rocket to clear the tower. During
this time, it
yawed 1.25 degrees
away from the tower to ensure adequate clearance despite adverse
winds. (This yaw, although small, can be seen in launch photos
taken from the east or west.) At an altitude of the rocket rolled
to the correct flight azimuth and then gradually pitched down until
38 seconds after second stage ignition. This pitch program was set
according to the prevailing winds during the launch month. The four
outboard engines also tilted toward the outside so that in the
event of a premature outboard engine shutdown the remaining engines
would thrust through the rocket's
center of gravity. The Saturn V quickly
accelerated, reaching at over in altitude. Much of the early
portion of the flight was spent gaining altitude, with the required
velocity coming later.
Apollo 11 S-IC separation
At about 80 seconds, the rocket experienced maximum dynamic
pressure (
Max Q). The
dynamic pressure on a rocket varies with
air density and the square of relative
velocity. Although velocity continues to increase, air density
decreases so quickly with altitude that dynamic pressure falls
below
Max Q.
Acceleration increased during S-IC flight for two reasons:
decreasing propellant mass; and increasing thrust as F-1 engine
efficiency improved in the thinner air at altitude. At 135 seconds,
the inboard (center) engine shut down to limit acceleration to 4
g. The other engines continued to burn until
either oxidizer or fuel depletion as detected by sensors in the
suction assemblies. First stage separation was a little less than
one second after cutoff to allow for F-1 thrust tail-off. Eight
small solid fuel separation motors backed the S-IC from the
interstage at an altitude of about . The first stage continued
ballistically to an altitude of about and then fell in the Atlantic
Ocean about downrange.
S-II sequence
After S-IC separation, the S-II second stage burned for 6 minutes
and propelled the craft to 109 miles (176 km) and
15,647 mph (25,182 km/h– 7.00 km/s), close to
orbital velocity.
For the first two unmanned launches, eight
solid-fuel ullage motors ignited for four seconds to give
positive acceleration to the S-II stage, followed by start of the
five J-2 engines. For the first seven manned Apollo missions only
four ullage motors were used on the S-II, and they were eliminated
completely for the final four launches. About 30 seconds after
first stage separation, the interstage ring dropped from the second
stage. This was done with an inertially fixed attitude so that the
interstage, only 1 meter from the outboard J-2 engines, would fall
cleanly without contacting them. Shortly after interstage
separation the
Launch Escape
System was also jettisoned. See
Apollo abort modes for more information
about the various abort modes that could have been used during a
launch.

Apollo 6 interstage
About 38 seconds after the second stage ignition the Saturn V
switched from a preprogrammed trajectory to a "closed loop" or
Iterative Guidance Mode. The Instrument Unit now computed in real
time the most fuel-efficient trajectory toward its target orbit. If
the Instrument Unit failed, the crew could switch control of the
Saturn to the Command Module's computer, take manual control, or
abort the flight.
About 90 seconds before the second stage cutoff, the center engine
shut down to reduce longitudinal
pogo
oscillations. A pogo suppressor, first flown on Apollo 14,
stopped this motion but the center engine was still shut down early
to limit acceleration
G forces. At around
this time, the LOX flow rate decreased, changing the mix ratio of
the two propellants, ensuring that there would be as little
propellant as possible left in the tanks at the end of second stage
flight. This was done at a predetermined
delta-v.
Five level sensors in the bottom of each S-II propellant tank were
armed during S-II flight, allowing any two to trigger S-II cutoff
and staging when they were uncovered. One second after the second
stage cut off it separated and several seconds later the third
stage ignited. Solid fuel retro-rockets mounted on the interstage
at the top of the S-II fired to back it away from the S-IVB. The
S-II impacted about 4200 km (2,300 miles)
from the launch site.
S-IVB sequence
Unlike the two-phase separation of the S-IC and S-II, the S-II and
S-IVB stages separated with a single step. Although it was
constructed as part of the third stage, the interstage remained
attached to the second stage.
During
Apollo 11, a typical lunar
mission, the third stage burned for about 2.5 minutes until first
cutoff at 11 minutes 40 seconds. At this point it was 2640 km
downrange and in a parking orbit at an altitude of 188 km and
velocity of 7790 m/sec. The third stage remained attached to the
spacecraft while it
orbited the Earth two and
a half times while astronauts and mission controllers prepared for
translunar injection
(TLI).
This parking orbit is quite low by Earth orbit standards, and it
would have been short-lived due to aerodynamic drag. This was not a
problem on a lunar mission because of the short stay in the parking
orbit. The S-IVB also continued to thrust at a low level with
hydrogen vents to settle the propellants in their tanks, and this
thrust easily exceeded aerodynamic drag.
For the final three Apollo flights, the temporary parking orbit was
even lower (approximately ), to increase payload for these
missions. For the two Earth orbit missions of the Saturn V,
Apollo 9 and
Skylab, the orbits were much higher and more typical
of manned orbital missions.
On
Apollo 11, TLI came at 2 hours and 44 minutes after
launch. The S-IVB burned for almost six minutes giving the
spacecraft a velocity close to the Earth's escape velocity of
11.2 km/s (40,320 km/h; 25,053 mph). This gave an
energy-efficient transfer to lunar orbit with the moon helping to
capture the spacecraft with a minimum of CSM fuel
consumption.
About 40 minutes after TLI the Apollo Command Service Module (CSM)
separated from the third stage, turned 180 degrees and docked with
the
Lunar Module (LM) that rode below
the CSM during launch. The CSM and LM separated from the spent
third stage 50 minutes later.
If it were to remain on the same trajectory as the spacecraft, the
S-IVB could have presented a collision hazard so its remaining
propellants were vented and the auxiliary propulsion system fired
to move it away. For lunar missions before
Apollo 13, the S-IVB was directed toward the
moon's trailing edge in its orbit so that the moon would
slingshot it beyond earth escape
velocity and into solar orbit. From
Apollo 13 onwards,
controllers directed the S-IVB to hit the Moon.
Seismometers left behind by previous missions
detected the impacts, and the information helped map the inside of
the Moon.
Apollo 9 was a special case; although it was an earth
orbital mission, after spacecraft separation its S-IVB was fired
out of earth orbit into a solar orbit.
On September 3, 2002,
Bill Yeung
discovered a suspected
asteroid, which was
given the discovery designation
J002E3. It
appeared to be in orbit around the Earth, and was soon discovered
from spectral analysis to be covered in white
titanium dioxide paint, the same paint used
for the Saturn V. Calculation of orbital parameters identified the
apparent asteroid as being the
Apollo 12 S-IVB stage.
Mission controllers had planned to send
Apollo 12's S-IVB
into solar orbit, but the burn after separating from the Apollo
spacecraft lasted too long, and hence it did not pass close enough
to the Moon, remaining in a barely-stable orbit around the Earth
and Moon. In 1971, through a series of gravitational perturbations,
it is believed to have entered in a solar orbit and then returned
into weakly-captured Earth orbit 31 years later. It left Earth
orbit again in June 2003. Another
near-earth object, discovered in 2006 and
designated
6Q0B44E, may also be part of an
Apollo spacecraft.
Skylab
In 1968, the
Apollo
Applications Program was created to look into science missions
that could be performed with the surplus Apollo hardware. Much of
the planning centered on the idea of a space station, which
eventually spawned the
Skylab program. Skylab
was launched using a two-stage Saturn V, sometimes called a
Saturn INT-21. It was the only launch
not directly related to the Apollo lunar landing program.
Originally it was planned to use a '
wet
workshop' concept, with a rocket stage being launched into
orbit by a
Saturn 1B and its spent S-IVB
outfitted in space, but this was abandoned for the '
dry workshop' concept: An S-IVB stage from a
Saturn IB was converted into a space station on the ground and
launched on a Saturn V.
A backup, constructed from a Saturn V third
stage, is now on display at the National Air
and Space Museum
.
Three crews lived aboard Skylab from May 25, 1973 to February 8,
1974, with Skylab remaining in orbit until July 11, 1979.
Proposed post-Apollo developments
The (canceled) second production run of Saturn Vs would very likely
have used the F-1A engine in its first stage, providing a
substantial performance boost. Other likely changes would have been
the removal of the fins (which turned out to provide little benefit
when compared to their weight); a stretched S-IC first stage to
support the more powerful F-1As; and uprated J-2s for the upper
stages.
A number of alternate Saturn vehicles were proposed based on the
Saturn V, ranging from the
Saturn
INT-20 with an
S-IVB stage and interstage
mounted directly onto an
S-IC stage, through to
the
Saturn V-23 which would not only
have five F-1 engines in the first stage, but also four strap-on
boosters with two F-1 engines each: giving a total of thirteen F-1
engines firing at launch.
The
Space Shuttle was initially
conceived of as a cargo transport to be used in concert with the
Saturn V, even to the point that a "
Saturn-Shuttle," using the current orbiter
and external tank, but with the tank mounted on a modified,
fly-back version of the S-IC, would be used to power the Shuttle
during the first two minutes of flight, after which the S-IC would
be jettisoned (which would then fly back to KSC for refurbishment)
and the
Space Shuttle Main
Engines would then fire and place the orbiter into orbit. The
Shuttle would handle
space station
logistics, while Saturn V would launch components. Lack of a second
Saturn V production run killed this plan and has left the United
States without a heavy-lift booster. Some in the U.S. space
community have come to lament this situation, as continued
production would have allowed the
International Space Station,
using a Skylab or
Mir configuration with both
U.S. and Russian docking ports, to have been lifted with just a
handful of launches, with the "Saturn Shuttle" concept possibly
eliminating the conditions that caused the
Challenger
Disaster in 1986.
The Saturn V would have been the prime launch vehicle for the
canceled
Voyager Mars
probes, and was to have been the launch vehicle for the nuclear
rocket stage
RIFT test program and the later
NERVA.
Successors
U.S. proposals for a rocket larger than the Saturn V from the late
1950s through the early 1980s were generally called
Nova. Over thirty different large rocket
proposals carried the Nova name.
Wernher von Braun and others also
had plans for a rocket that would have featured eight F-1 engines
in its first stage allowing it to launch a manned spacecraft on a
direct ascent flight to the Moon.
Other plans for the Saturn V called for using a
Centaur as an upper stage or adding strap-on
boosters. These enhancements would have increased its ability to
send large unmanned spacecraft to the outer
planets or manned spacecraft to
Mars.
In 2006, NASA, as part of the upcoming
Constellation Program that would
replace the Space Shuttle after 2010, unveiled plans to construct
the heavy-lift
Ares V rocket, a
Shuttle Derived Launch
Vehicle using some existing
Space
Shuttle and Saturn V infrastructure. Named in homage of the
Saturn V, the original design, based on the Space Shuttle External
Tank, was . tall, and powered by five
Space Shuttle Main Engines
(SSMEs) and two uprated five-segment
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket
Boosters, which a modified variation would be used for the
crew-launched
Ares I rocket. As the designed
evolved, the Ares V was slightly modified, with the same diameter
as that of the Saturn V's S-IC and S-II stages, and in place of the
five SSMEs, five
RS-68 rocket engines, the
same engines used on the
Delta IV EELV, would be used. The switch from the SSME to the
RS-68 was due to the steep price of the cost of the SSME, as that
it would be thrown away along with the Ares V core stage after each
use, while the RS-68 engine, which is expendable, is cheaper,
simpler to manufacture, and more powerful than the SSME. In 2008,
NASA again redesigned the Ares V, lengthening and widening the core
stage and added an extra RS-68 engine, giving the launch vehicle a
total of
six engines. The six RS-68B engines, during
launch, will be augmented by two "5.5-segment" SRBs instead of the
original five-segment designs, although no decision has yet been
made on the number of segments NASA would be using on the final
design. If the six RS-68B/5.5-segment SRB variant is used, the
vehicle would have a total of approx. . of thrust at liftoff,
making it more powerful than the Saturn V or the Soviet/Russian
N-1 and
Energia
boosters. An upper stage, known as the
Earth Departure Stage and based on the
S-IVB, will utilize a more advanced version of the J-2 engine known
as the "J-2X," and will place the
Altair lunar landing vehicle
into a
low earth orbit. At . tall
and with the capability of placing ~180 tons into low earth orbit,
the Ares V will surpass the Saturn V and the two Soviet/Russian
superboosters in both height, lift, and launch capability.
The RS-68B engines, based on the current RS-68 and RS-68A engines
built by the Rocketdyne Division of
Pratt and Whitney (formerly under the
ownerships of
Boeing and
Rockwell International), produce less
than half the thrust per engine as the Saturn V's F-1 engines, but
are more efficient and can be throttled up or down, much like the
SSMEs on the Shuttle. The
J-2
engine used on the S-II and S-IVB will be modified into the
improved J-2X engine for use both on the
Earth Departure Stage (EDS) as well as
on the second stage of the proposed
Ares I.
Both the EDS and the Ares I second stage would use a single J-2X
motor, although the EDS was originally designed to use two motors
until the redesign employing the five (later six) RS-68Bs in place
of the five SSMEs.
Cost
From 1964 until 1973, a total of
US$6.5 billion was appropriated for the
Saturn V, with the maximum being in 1966 with US$1.2 billion.
Allowing for inflation this is equivalent to roughly $32–45 billion
in 2007 money. This works out at an amortized cost of $2.4-3.5
billion per launch.
One of the main reasons for the cancellation of the Apollo program
was the cost. In 1966, NASA received its highest budget of US$4.5
billion, about 0.5 percent of the
GDP of the United States at that
time.
Saturn V vehicles and launches

A montage of all Saturn V
launches.
Serial Number |
Mission |
Launch Date |
Notes |
SA-501 |
Apollo 4 |
November 9, 1967 |
First test flight, a complete success. |
SA-502 |
Apollo 6 |
April 4, 1968 |
Second test flight, with some serious second and third stage
problems occurring. |
SA-503 |
Apollo 8 |
December 21, 1968 |
First manned flight of Saturn V and lunar orbit |
SA-504 |
Apollo 9 |
March 3, 1969 |
Earth orbit LM test |
SA-505 |
Apollo 10 |
May 18, 1969 |
Lunar orbit LM test |
SA-506 |
Apollo 11 |
July 16, 1969 |
First manned lunar landing |
SA-507 |
Apollo 12 |
November 14, 1969 |
Landed near Surveyor 3. Vehicle was struck twice by lightning
after liftoff with no serious damage. |
SA-508 |
Apollo 13 |
April 11, 1970 |
Severe, near catastrophic pogo
oscillations in second stage caused early center engine
shutdown. Service Module O2 tank rupture caused mission abort en
route to moon, crew saved. |
SA-509 |
Apollo 14 |
January 31, 1971 |
Landed near Fra Mauro |
SA-510 |
Apollo 15 |
July 26, 1971 |
First Lunar Rover |
SA-511 |
Apollo 16 |
April 16, 1972 |
Landed at Descartes |
SA-512 |
Apollo 17 |
December 6, 1972 |
First and only night launch; Final Apollo lunar mission |
SA-513 |
Skylab 1 |
May 14, 1973 |
Two-stage Skylab version (Saturn
INT-21) |
SA-514 |
Unused |
Designated but never used for Apollo
18/19 |
SA-515 |
Unused |
Designated but never used as a backup Skylab launch
vehicle |
Currently there are three locations where Saturn Vs are on display:
- One
at the Johnson Space Center
made up of first stage of SA-514, the second stage
from SA-515 and the third stage from SA-513. With stages
arriving between 1977 and 1979, this was displayed in the open
until its 2005 restoration when a structure was built around it for
protection.
- One
at the Kennedy
Space Center
made up of S-IC-T (test stage) and the second and
third stages from SA-514. The vehicle was known as 500F when
it was rolled out at LC-39 on May 26, 1966. It was displayed
outdoors for decades, then in recent years was enclosed for
protection from the elements.
- :One made up of S-IC-D, S-II-F/D and S-IVB-D. These were all
test stages not meant for actual flight. This was displayed
outdoors for decades (and there is a poignant photo of Wernher von Braun standing next to it) and
in recent years was enclosed in the Davidson Center for Space
Exploration.
- :Also in 1999, a Saturn V mockup was built and is located
adjacently in a prominent upright display.
Of these three locations, only the one at the Johnson Space Center
consists entirely of stages that were intended to be launched.
Additionally, the S-IC stage from SA-515
resides on display at the Michoud Assembly Facility
in New Orleans, Louisiana
. The S-IVB stage from SA-515 was converted
for use as a backup for Skylab.
The Skylab backup is now on display at the
National Air
and Space Museum
in Washington, D.C.
.
The
blueprints or other plans for the Saturn V still exist on microfilm at the Marshall Space
Flight Center
.
Media

Launch of
Apollo 15: T-30s
through T+40s.
See also
References
- Akens, David S (1971). Saturn
illustrated chronology: Saturn's first eleven years, April 1957 -
April 1968. NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center as MHR-5. Also
available in PDF format. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- Benson, Charles D. and William Barnaby Faherty (1978). Moonport: A history of Apollo launch facilities
and operations. NASA. Also available in PDF format. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. Published
by University Press of Florida in two volumes: Gateway to the
Moon: Building the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex, 2001,
ISBN 0-8130-2091-3 and Moon Launch!: A History of the
Saturn-Apollo Launch Operations, 2001 ISBN 0-8130-2094-8.
- Bilstein, Roger E. (1996). Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the
Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles. NASA SP-4206. ISBN
0-16-048909-1. Also available in PDF format. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- Lawrie, Alan (2005). Saturn, Collectors Guide
Publishing, ISBN 1-894959-19-1.
- Orloff, Richard W (2001). Apollo By The Numbers: A Statistical
Reference. NASA. Also available in PDF format. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. Published
by Government Reprints Press, 2001, ISBN 1-931641-00-5.
- Final Report - Studies of Improved Saturn V Vehicles and
Intermediate Payload Vehicles (PDF). NASA - George C. Marshall
Space Flight Center under Contract NAS&-20266. Retrieved on
2008-02-19.
- Saturn 5 launch vehicle flight evaluation report:
AS-501 Apollo 4 mission (PDF). NASA – George C. Marshall Space
Flight Center (1968). Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- Saturn 5 launch vehicle flight evaluation report:
AS-508 Apollo 13 mission (PDF). NASA – George C. Marshall Space
Flight Center (1970). Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
- Saturn V Flight Manual - SA-503 (PDF). NASA –
George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (1968). Retrieved on
2008-02-19.
- Saturn V Press Kit. Marshall Space Flight
Center History Office. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.
Notes
External links
NASA sites
Other sites
Simulators