In praise of Saturn V

[T & P]

Watching a good documentary on Eden right now on deep space exploration, and the utter brilliance of the Saturn V rocket cannot be overstated imo. Of a scale absolutely unprecedented and far, far bigger than any other rocket built before or since, it was also highly advanced. Its third stage engine had to be able to be shut down and restarted at will in deep space to give the vessel any chance to escape Earth's orbit

The rocket successfully completed its first mission and took astronauts to orbit the Moon and safely back, achieving many firsts in space exploration, after undergoing just two test launches. The astronauts on that first mission must have had balls of steel.

As NASA contemplates reaching Mars, a successor (requiring to produce even more thrust) is on the works. But it remains to be seen if it'll be as majestic as this beast

 

[2hats]

Geekfact: That's not actually the original Saturn V but a modified one off for the Skylab launch.

 

[T & P]

Wow. How did you spot the difference?

 

[Mumbles274]

amazing bit of kit

/understatement

 

[Mumbles274]

Wow. How did you spot the difference?

no antenna thingy at the top

 

[2hats]

no antenna thingy at the top

Launch Escape System.

 

[T & P]

Of course... Another clever bit of hardware.

 

[Mumbles274]

this is a nice video edit of what it says is the apollo 11 launch (may be other launches used for the edit)

 

[HAL9000]

moon machine documentaries are well worth a watch, you might find them on you tube.

 

[2hats]

Don't know if this has been posted elsewhere here in the past but it is rather fun, fascinating to watch:

 

[Mumbles274]

yeah, just watched that.. am watching shuttle launches too now!!!

 

[Sprocket.]

I remember following the 'Space Race' avidly as a youngster and watching all the Apollo launches on TV.
Monochrome never conveyed the awesome power of these incredible pieces of hardware.
Saturn Vs rule!