Giant Rocket Motors on the First Stage of NASA's Saturn V Rocket, which was used in the Apollo program to take men to the moon.
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 would later be built by Lockheed Martin. Most of its mass of over 4,400,000 pounds (2,000 metric tons) at launch was propellant, RP-1 fuel with liquid oxygen as oxidizer. It was 138 feet (42 m) tall and 33 feet (10 m) in diameter, and provided over 7,600,000 pounds-force (34,000 kN) of thrust. The S-IC stage had a dry weight of about 289,000 pounds (131 metric tons) and fully fueled at launch had a total weight of 5,100,000 pounds (2,300 metric tons). It was powered by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines arrayed in a quincunx (five units, with four arranged in a square, and the fifth in the center) The center engine was held in a fixed position, while the four outer engines could be hydraulically turned (gimballed) to steer 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 seconds before liftoff) and at engine cutoff, the vehicle was at an altitude of about 36 nautical miles (67 km), was downrange about 50 nautical miles (93 km), and was moving about 7,500 feet per second (2,300 m/s).
Size: 4322px × 3744px
Location: Kennedy Space Centre Visitors Complex, Merritt Island, Florida, USA.
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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