Saturn V

Hey everyone,

The dream of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to Earth was in reach after Project Gemini. But, man would need a rocket to travel to the moon carrying more mass than ever before. This rocket would prove to be the largest rocket ever built by far. The Saturn V booster would be this rocket. The initial work on a Saturn V relative would begin in 1960, and they would begin plans on the Saturn V in 1962. By 1963, it was confirmed as the rocket for the Apollo missions. Wernher von Braun was the architect of this rocket, fulfilling a long time dream for the man. The finished product would stand 363 feet tall and use 6,500,000 pounds of fuel. Like other rockets, this was a multi-stage rocket which had three stages. The first stage had five engines and used kerosene type fuel with liquid oxygen. The second stage also had five engines and used liquid hydrogen and oxygen. The third stage used a single engine for a final push into space with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Before men would ride this rocket, there would be two unmanned launches of this rocket with the Apollo 4 and 6. Four was successful while six had some serious problems. However, the rocket has 2,000 moving parts, and anyone of these parts failing could cause serious problems. The work had to be literally flawless, and it was consistently. This rocket is the pinnacle of science and an amazing feat considering that rocketry was still young (40 years old) and space flight was very young (12 years old). While the rocket worked, other missions would have to be flown before man would walk on the moon.