Saturn (rocket) - astronomy.

Saturn (rocket) - astronomy. I INTRODUCTION Saturn (rocket), family of rockets used to launch some of the most famous space flights in history, including Apollo 11, the 1969 mission that carried American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin to the surface of the moon. The most powerful rockets of their time, Saturn rockets were developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an agency of the United States government, for use in the Apollo space exploration program. Between the first Saturn test launch in 1961 and the final mission in 1975, Saturn rockets launched 17 Apollo missions, sent 3 Apollo crews to the American space station Skylab, and delivered an Apollo crew to a historic rendezvous with cosmonauts aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 19. German-born American rocket designer Wernher Von Braun first proposed the Saturn rocket in 1957 while working at the United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA, established the following year, renamed the facility the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and charged its engineers with developing giant rockets capable of sending Americans to the moon. Von Braun, appointed as the center's director in 1960, oversaw the development of all three members of the Saturn rocket family. II SATURN I NASA used the first Saturn rocket, known as Saturn I, between 1961 and 1965. It stood 36.6 m (120 ft) tall, weighed 430,000 kg (950,000 lb), and had two separate engines, or stages, one atop the other. The first stage lifted the rocket into the upper atmosphere, then burned out and fell to Earth as the second stage carried the rest of the vehicle and its cargo farther into space. Saturn I's first stage, based on technology developed for the earlier Jupiter, Redstone, and Thor rockets, consisted of eight engines fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen. Its second stage had six engines that burned liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Used primarily for research and development, Saturn I rockets launched a research satellite and test models of Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit before being retired. III SATURN IB NASA began work on the second member of the Saturn family, the Saturn IB, in 1966. Larger and more powerful than its predecessor, Saturn IB stood 68 m (223 ft) tall with its Apollo payload on top and weighed more than 580,000 kg (1.3 million lb). Like Saturn I, Saturn IB incorporated two stages: an upgraded version of the eight-piece engine used in Saturn I and a single, large engine that burned liquid hydrogen and oxygen. This combination provided nearly double the power of Saturn I. In 1968 a Saturn IB sent Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, into Earth orbit. NASA continued to use Saturn IB in many key space flights even after its successor--Saturn V--became the primary rocket of the Apollo program. In 1973 three different Apollo missions powered by Saturn IBs docked with the Skylab space station, where American astronauts spent weeks at a time conducting experiments in space. A Saturn IB launched the last Saturn rocket mission when it sent an Apollo to dock with the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft in 1975. IV SATURN V Long before Saturn IB sent Apollo 7 into Earth orbit in 1968, NASA engineers were developing Saturn V, a rocket capable of carrying Apollo missions to the moon. The largest rocket in history, Saturn V measured 110 m (363 ft) tall with its Apollo payload on top and weighed 2.9 million kg (6.3 million lb). The giant rocket consisted of three stages: a first stage of five engines that burned kerosene and liquid oxygen, a second stage of five engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and a third stage made up of the large engine first used in Saturn IB. This combination provided Saturn V with enough power to launch 127,000 kg (280,000 lb) into Earth orbit or to send 43,000 kg (95,000 lb) to the moon--more than six times more powerful than Saturn I. The first Saturn V test launched in 1967. The following year a Saturn V lifted off Apollo 8, the first manned flight to another celestial body, and orbited the moon ten times. Saturn V, the powerhouse of NASA's rocket arsenal, became the mainstay of the Apollo program. In addition to the historic Apollo 11 mission, five other Apollo expeditions launched on Saturn V rockets landed on the moon between 1969 and 1972. A Saturn V also launched Apollo 13, the ill-fated 1970 mission that had to return to Earth before landing on the moon because an oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft exploded (see Apollo Program: Apollo Missions: Apollo 13). In 1973 the last Saturn V launched the unmanned Skylab space station into Earth orbit. Altogether, NASA launched 13 Saturn V rockets. Two Saturn V rockets that were never launched are on public display, one at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, and the other at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.