Saturn The Giant
Credit:
NASA
Forty years ago today (May 25, 1961) U.S. president
John
Kennedy announced the goal of landing Americans on the Moon
by the end of the decade.
Kennedy's ambitious
speech triggered
a nearly unprecedented
peacetime technological mobilization and one result was the
Saturn V moon
rocket.
Its development directed by rocket pioneer Wernher Von Braun,
the three stage
Saturn
V stood over 36 stories tall.
It had a cluster of five
first
stage engines
fueled by
liquid oxygen and kerosene which together were
capable of producing 7.5 million pounds of thrust.
Giant Saturn V rockets
ultimately hurled nine
Apollo missions to the
Moon and back again with six landing on
the
lunar surface.
The first landing, by
Apollo 11, occurred on July 20, 1969 achieving
Kennedy's goal.
Bathed in light, this
Saturn V
awaits an April 11, 1970 launch on the
third lunar landing mission, Apollo 13.