lol. Given the critical nature of the mission that tradeoff seems like an efficient decision. The RD-253, developed at the same time as the F-1 and using the advanced technology that you mentioned, was rated at less than 500,000 lbt and had an Isp of 285. The RD-170 came over 10 yrs later. So what engine(s) were available in 1964 to power a Saturn V class vehicle that were more efficient than the F-1? I believe operationally the Saturn 5 always had 5 F-1's.
Operationally, yes... but the early design had 4 F-1's. The center engine was added as weight increased during design. It was fixed and was shut down earlier than the outer engines. The other 4 engines were gimballed.
The F-1 was originally started by the USAF for a different application. USAF dropped the design and NASA picked it up for the Saturn project, going from four to five engines because, like Terry said, weight increased. If NASA had started from scratch, the engines would have been different, but they would have had a hard time meeting the schedule JFK dictated.
Andrew- No, at the time the AF started development they had the X-20 Dynasoar program going and were also interested in throwing huge satellites into polar or GEO orbit. AF already had one LOX/RP ICBM, the Atlas, and were going to storables (Titan, hypergols) and would eventually evolve to solids. Took some very high powered operational techniques to get the Atlas off in a hurry, which Bernie Schriever and his guys managed, but they did not need another ICBM that had to be loaded with LOX just before launch.
Agree.. I'm gonna watch it again through my apple tv on the big screen and crank up the surround...gives me the chills...love it!!
Couple stories; A man that lived a couple houses away when I was a kid was an exec at a Company that all who fly know very well. He would give summer-time jobs to kids in the neighborhood. When I worked there 1 summer, during lunch break I would go to the area on one floor that was the uniform making area, it was so cool, it had uniforms hanging and helmets on surfaces and cutting tables and sewing machines. It was also so 50's looking in this old building where I remember gumball style dispensers with salt tablets to help during the summer. This entire floor section should be in the Air & Space museum to show how things were made. This company has many products on display at the Smithsonian on the mall and is a great part of Space and aviation history. I was watching C-Span 1 day, 10 or more years ago when they had a previously announced special hook-up live to the orbiting Space Shuttle where they said they would take calls from the public. So as soon as they said call in, I did. My call was answered by the C-Span operator and then it went live and Brian Lamb said ask what would you like to ask the commander, so I spoke with the commander of a Shuttle mission live while he was in orbit. I asked if they had a radar on board that would warn them of objects nearby and of meteorites. He gave a nice explanation basically saying no, the ground did that. Well, the wild thing about that call was that on landing of that mission it was announced that one of the front windows had been dinged by a micro-meteorite after my call. I also attended the launch of STS-100 at the press area, amazing experience. Here is a really interesting program on the construction of the Apollo Command module, best moon show I have seen. Priceless video, pay attention to the care needed in the making of the parachutes and the incredible calculations for re-entry; [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpBS0m7AJ0s]Moon Machines (2008): The Command Module - YouTube[/ame]
Make sure you catch the other episodes of that documentary on --- the Rover -- the Spacesuit --- the LEM ---- the Saturn V That was the best documentary I have seen and I learned a lot that I didn't know. The more you know about Apollo the more impressed you have to be in just how good they were. So much done in so little time and during a time of great turmoil in the US with a major war going on. The 60's were awesome in many ways, I was a little kid then. I was pre-mature in my call to bring that factory work area I used to visit on my lunch hour to the Smithsonian, it seems they are still going strong, not only did they do the first spacesuit for the first spacewalk but they have done all the shuttle suits, the U2 suits, the SR-71 suits, and just did the Red Bull record setting suit! So cool that these high tech products come from an old factory in an old mill city, made in the USA. Aerospace | David Clark Company | Worcester, MA
For those who'd rather have something beyond YouTube, the Moon Machines series is available on DVD. The listing implies four episodes, but I have it on good authority that all six episodes are on the disc. Amazon.com: Moon Machines: Robert Seamans, Bill Stoney, Sonny Morea, Cliff Hess, Christopher Riley, Nick Davidson, Sara Cropley: Movies & TV
Wonderful article. It still amazes me the manic progress made during the decade of 1960-1970.The Apollo program could not have been possible without progress made by the Mercury,Gemini,Ranger and Surveyor Landers and many more programs.Every spaceflight mission back then was almost always pioneering some aspect of spaceflight.Its just so astonishing.Ranger landers were still crashing in moon in the mid 1965 when the Lunar module was already being constructed.Those design/construction/testing/dummy tests/manned spaceflights this entire cycle was compressed into 2-3 years.The Gemini dockings with Agena,the precision rendezvous,Apollo 8 lunar flyby,longer and longer hours in space.The leap from sending small spacecraft and lander in a Trans Lunar injection to 40 odd tons in a Human-rated mission with hardly one test flight is eye-popping to say the least. After a long time,SpaceX is one company that has captured my imagination again.I wish them good luck on their efforts.Falcon heavy and the human rated Dragon look promising.
Brilliant stuff [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqQmoJafQlg]Moon Machines (2008): The Saturn V Rocket - YouTube[/ame]
not as easy as SpaceX and the Apollo team made rockets look [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl12dXYcUTo]Crash rocket "Proton-M" with 3 Glonass spacecraft / ????????? ???? "??????-?" 02.07.2013 - YouTube[/ame]
Amazing view and engineering. These guy's are good. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGimzB5QM1M]Grasshopper 325m Test | Single Camera (Hexacopter) - YouTube[/ame]
Wonder why the pics and "news" took so long to come out. I just saw a whole bunch of stories in the last few days. Which got me looking for stuff........ GREAT PIC here https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Davidson_Center-27527-2.jpg and more interesting video here - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SA500D_test_article_from_Saturn_V_quarterly_reports.ogv
Probably because there a quite a few F-1 engines lying on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. That he happened to pluck those that were on Apollo 11 made it more newsworthy.
SpaceX keeps playing (and the little hovering toy-like copters that film it are cool) [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4]Grasshopper 744m Test | Single Camera (Hexacopter) - YouTube[/ame]
