Saturn V was the largest, most powerful rocket ever produced. Developed in the 1960s, in response to President Kennedy's call for a moon landing by the end of the decade, it rose from the drawing board to flight vehicle in record time. The rocket was masterminded by Wernher Von Braun and did not fail in any of its flights. The story of the moon missions is well known with many books and films on the subject. Little has been written on the Saturn V rocket and next to nothing on the development, manufacturing and testing of the rocket stages. In this book, for the first time ever, the detailed story of the history of each Saturn V stage is presented. This includes the 45 flight stages built and all of the various test stages. Most of the stages ended up being launched. Some are in museums, some were destroyed on the ground and some are so obscure they are detailed for the first time in this book. The book traces each stage from the start of manufacturing, through assembly, testing, static firing and transport to the Kennedy Space Center. Facilities across the US were used to manufacture and test the hardware at a pace demanded by the Kennedy pronouncement. Engines were built by Rocketdyne and the rocket stages by Boeing, North American Aviation and the Douglas Company. Testing took place in Santa Susana, Sacramento, Mississippi and other facilities around the country. There were many problems along the way and all are covered in a detail never published before. Stages blew up, materials disintegrated, engines exploded. The development of the F1 and J2 rocket engines is covered as well as details of all the major manufacturing and testing facilities. Throughout, unprecedented details of dates, times, events and para meters are presented. Other unique aspects include: - details of the history of each and every engine on each stage including a log of engine allocation - details of the transportation of each stage and engine by various means such as truck, barge, boat, super Guppy aircraft including a unique log of these trips - details of every firing including timelines, test stands, problems, performance details plus logs of each firing on each stage To supplement the book many photographs that have never been published before have been obtained and appear for the first time. The location of the remaining hardware is identified with photographs of the museum pieces. Research for the book has taken over two years and included unique access to all the major facilities and NASA history offices and libraries. Information has been obtained from Saturn veterans and also through the Freedom of Information Act. In summary this book has the first ever comprehensive presentation of the complete Saturn stage and engines activities from the early 1960s to the conclusion of the program in the mid 1970s. |
