Spacelopnik: Did you know?

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
10/19/2017 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Spacelopnik, Planelopnik

In November 1960, President John F. Kennedy !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to the world that the United States had chosen to send a man to the Moon within ten years (not because it was easy, but because it was hard). The US had already orbited the Earth with Projects !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but leaving Earth orbit would require much more power than was provided by the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rockets. Built specifically for the Apollo missions, the mighty Saturn V Heavy Lift Vehicle was the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever to achieve operational status. Here are a few fascinating facts from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! about the extraordinary Saturn V.

Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the Moon, awaits launch in 1972 (NASA)

When all three stages were put together, the Saturn V stood 363 feet tall, 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Fully fueled, it weighed 6.2 million pounds, about as much as 476 African elephants. That doesn’t seem like very many elephants, but an adult African elephant weighs about 13,000 pounds.

Apollo 11 on its way to the Moon on July 16, 1969 (NASA)

When it was launched, the Saturn V produced 34.5 million newtons of thrust. To the layman, that equates to about 7.6 million pounds, generating more energy than 85 Hoover Dams. If you have a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon, the amount of energy in a Saturn V would take your car around the Earth 800 times on a single tank.

The launch of Apollo 14 on January 31, 1971 (NASA)

Getting to the Moon takes a lot of fuel, and that fuel weighs a lot. You also have to figure in the weight of the survival gear, the Command, Lunar and Service Modules, and other bits for the humans to ride in. The Saturn V could launch a total of 260,000 pounds (130 tons) into Earth orbit, or 100,000 pounds (50 tons) into Lunar orbit. The greatest load ever lifted into low Earth orbit (LEO) by a Saturn V was 310,000 (155 tons).

A look inside the Saturn V (NASA)

The first launch of the Saturn V took place on November 9, 1967 with the unmanned !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Saturn V was used throughout the Apollo program, and was also used to place the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! space station into orbit. A total of 15 rockets were built, and 13 were flown. The final launch with Skylab took place on May 14, 1973. From 1968-1972, 24 astronauts went to the moon atop a Saturn V, with three of them making two trips.

The launch of Skylab 1, the final mission of the Saturn V rocket (NASA)

The total cost of the Saturn V project was $6.4 billion, or about $185 million per launch. Of that, $110 million was for the Saturn V alone. In !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Saturn V project would cost about $38 billion.

An artist’s rendering of the Space Launch System (NASA)

Today, NASA is committed to returning to the Moon, and has plans to eventually put an astronaut on Mars. Tests of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! space vehicle were launched with a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket, one which is still less powerful than the Saturn V. But future missions, including a trip to Mars, will require even more power. For that, NASA is currently working on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which will eclipse the Saturn V to become the most powerful rocket ever built and create a new class of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoyed this post, please join in the conversation and let me know. For more posts about aviation history and aircraft oddities, head over to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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DISCUSSION (16)

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > ttyymmnn
10/19/2017 at 12:42

Also Rice plays Texas, not because it’s hard, but because Texas pays them to do their homework when they come to town.

Rico > ttyymmnn
10/19/2017 at 13:03

not because it was easy, but because it was hard

I wish we still had this mindset. America used to be the country who used to get things done whether it was railroads, interstate highway system, or getting a man to the moon. Now we (as a country) wring our hands at every fucking decision and can’t ever get shit done even as our infrastructure and position as a modern super power continues to dwindle. Sad. 60 years ago if we wanted to achieve a goal we pushed for it, now we can’t even get our heads out of our asses long enough to do anything.

jimz > Rico
10/19/2017 at 13:15

hold the phone there. it was a lot easier to do shit back then because it was all being done from scratch. Building the railroads and interstates was “easy” when we didn’t have to care about what was already there. Forests? Fuck it, bulldoze through. Bison and recalcitrant natives? Fuck it, shoot ‘em. Replacing railroads and interstates is a much harder decision and much longer process because you have to work around what was built up around it and have alternative routes provided in the meantime.

and the space program was 100% about showing the Soviets that “ours is bigger.” Both countries’ space programs came out of their nuclear weapons programs; indeed the first rockets used to get people in orbit (e.g. the Redstone, Atlas I and Titan I and II) were re-purposed ICBMs.

once the Soviet boogeyman ceased to exist, so did the need to reach further into space.

Rico > jimz
10/19/2017 at 13:20

You have a point about replacing things that are already there. I look at huge projects like the NYC Subway system or like the Hoover Dam and think that if we somehow needed to build it today it would NEVER happen no matter how badly it was needed.

Jason Spears > ttyymmnn
10/19/2017 at 13:40

Bro, do you even lift?

—Saturn V first stage

jimz > Rico
10/19/2017 at 13:41

not least because it would be voted down by people screaming “don’t you dare raise my taxes! Cut spending on other stuff!”

ttyymmnn > jimz
10/19/2017 at 13:55

You are absolutely correct, but I believe the sentiment is still correct.

ttyymmnn > DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time
10/19/2017 at 13:57

Did you know that Kennedy’s speech was delivered at the Rice stadium? I got my masters degree at Rice, BTW. Their football team generally sucks, but they are VERY smart.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > ttyymmnn
10/19/2017 at 14:12

At some point I want to sit down and look at the total fuel energy consumed in an Apollo mission and the actual distance traveled to determine what kind of MPGe was achieved over the course of a mission. The instantaneous fuel economy is horrible but they did spend a ton of time coasting along at very high speeds.

Rico > jimz
10/19/2017 at 14:32

Absolutely spot on!

RallyWrench > ttyymmnn
10/19/2017 at 14:47

Inarguably one of the greatest machines ever devised. There’s a slow motion sequence of liftoff in the Gene Cernan doc The Last Man on The Moon that brings me to tears with its combination of the score and footage. Narration stops and for a minute it’s just pure power and the inspiration of humanity reaching for the stars.

ttyymmnn > TheTurbochargedSquirrel
10/19/2017 at 14:48

I’m not sure the SV ever coasted. FTA:

If you have a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon, the amount of energy in a Saturn V would take your car around the Earth 800 times on a single tank.

user314 > ttyymmnn
10/19/2017 at 15:56

Great article! Got to see the one down at KSC back in ‘97; it’s breathtaking how big the Saturn V was, even lying on its side.

I would be very wary about pining hopes to the Senate Launch System, it’s aims are more pork and patronage than anything else. I fully expect the next Americans to visit the moon will get there via SpaceX or Blue Origin rockets rather than NASA/ULA.

ttyymmnn > user314
10/19/2017 at 16:40

Thanks! I’m struggling a bit to come up with topics for this series, but this one just popped into my head for some reason. It was fun to write.

I have recorded, but only begun to watch, the movie Destination Moon (1950). It’s a classic of the early space age, and starts out with the failed test launch of a V2 rocket (thanks, Herr von Braun). But the gist of the movie is that when the government can’t get the job done they turn to the private sector, namely a man who made his fortune manufacturing airplanes. Where the government fails, private industry succeeds. Sounds like a very prescient film, and I look forward to finishing it.

EngineerWithTools > RallyWrench
10/19/2017 at 20:24

The engineering cameras! I could watch those films for hours. Peaceful silence and amazing, barely contained fury, all at once.

benjrblant > ttyymmnn
07/17/2019 at 16:56

The total cost of the Saturn V project was $6.4 billion, or about $185 million per launch. Of that, $110 million was for the Saturn V alone. In today’s dollars , the Saturn V project would cost about $38 billion.

and then

The Air Force has big plans for the B-21, planning to purchase 100 bombers to replace the B-2 Spirit and B-1B Lancer, at a cost of $656 million each in 2019 dollars.

c’mon america.