Stages to Saturn. A Technological History of the Apollo-Saturn Launch Vehicles

508 Pages·2003·30.81 MB·English

by  Bilstein, Roger E.

STAGES TO SATURN
II"'
-\
NASA SP -4206
STAGES TO SATURN
A Technological History
of the
Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles
Roger E. Bilstein
The NASA History Series
Scientific and Technical Information Branch 1980
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, DC
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bilstein, Roger E.
Stages to Saturn.
(The NASA history series) (NASA SP ; 4206)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
Supt. of Docs. no.: NAS 1.2 1 :4206
1. Project Saturn. I. Title. 11. Series: United
States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NASA history series. 111. Series: United States.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA SP ;
4206.
TL78 1.5.S3B54 629.47’522 79-607 154
For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. 20402
To
Wernher von Braun
I912 - 1977
and the men and women
who built the Saturn
Contents
Page
FOREWORD.. ................................................ xi
PREFACE. ................................................... xv
ACKNOWLEDGMEN..T.S.. .................................... xix
I . PROLOGUE. ................................................. 1
1 . Concepts and Origins .................................. 3
I1 . THES ATURNB UILDINGBL OCKS. ............................. 23
2. Aerospace Alphabet: ABMA. ARPA. MSFC .............. 25
3 . Missions. Modes. and Manufacturing .................... 57
111 . FIRE.S MOKE. AND THUNDETRH:E E NGINES.. .................. 87
4. Conventional Cryogenics: The H-1 and the F-1 ........... 89
5 . Unconventional Cryogenics: RL- 10 and 5-2 .............. 129
IV . BUILDINGTH E SATURNV .................................... 155
6. From the S-IV to the S-IVB ............................ 157
7 . The Lower Stages: S-IC and S-I1 ........................ 191
8 . From Checkout to Launch: The Quintessential Computer ... 235
V . COORDINATIOMN:E NA ND MACHINES ......................... 259
9. Managing Saturn ...................................... 261
10. The Logistics Tangle ................................... 293
VI . STEPB Y STEP ............................................... 321
11. Qualifying the Cluster Concept ......................... 323
12. The Giant Leap ....................................... 347
vii
STAGES TO SATURN
Page
VI I. EPILOGUE. .......... ........................ 379
13. Legacies ....................................... 381
v
APPENDIXA -SCHEMATICO F SATCRN ...................... .405
APPENDIBX- SATURN V PRELAUNCH-LAUNCSHEQ UENCE. ...., 407
APPENDICX- SATURN FLIGHTH ISTORY 413
APPENDIDX- SATURN R&D FUNDINGH ISTORY. ............... .421
APPENDIXE- SATURN V CONTRACTORS.. .................... .423
APPENDIXF -LOCATION OF REMAINING SATURN HARDWARE. . . 439
,
APPENDIGX- NASA ORGANIZATIODNU RINGAP OLLO-SATUR.N . ,441
APPENDIXH -MSFC PERSONNEDLU RINGA POLLO-SATUR.N. .... 449
NOTES ........ .............................. 457
SOURCES AND RESEARCHM ATERIAL. .......................... 493
INDEX ...................................................... 501
Illustrations
Page
Frontispiece-the Saturn V at LC-39 ......................................... ii
Seven photos of Apollo I1 mission ...................
Photo of Robert Goddard ................
Photo of German rocket pioneers .........
Four photos of early rockets in the U.S. ...
Wernher von Braun with the first seven astronauts ...
Launch of Alan Shepard on Mercury-Redsto
Scale comparison of U.S. manned space flight vehicles
Development of Saturn concepts ..........
Saturn I with Mercury-Redstone and Juno I1 .........
President Eisenhower with first KASA Administrator T.
Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden . .
Wernher von Braun with his ABMA senior s
President Eisenhower dedicates the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center .
Abe Silverstein tours rocket facility .......................................
Two summary charts from the Silverstein Report .............................. 49
Early versions of the Saturn C-1 and C-5 ........
The stable of NASA launch vehicles .............
John Houbolt and Lunar Orbit Rendezvous ..... ............. 64
President Kennedy at MSFC ....................
Four aerial views of MSFC .....................
Photos of Michoud Operations and Mississippi Tes ............. 75
Saturn I design and manufacture ............................................ 82
Saturn IB design and manufacture . ................. .. 84
...
Ut22
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I
Page
I Saturn engine applications
Turbopump for the H-1 engine ...........
Specifics and systems of the H-1 engine ....... ........................... 100
Firing and manufacture of the H-1 engine . .................... 105
,
Specifics and schematic of the F-1 engine .................
Engine start sequence fo
F-1 engine injector plate
F-1 thrust chamber and
F-1 test stand .........
F-1 engine production line .................................................. 126
Centaur stage with two RL-IO engines ........................................ 136
RL-I0 engine specifics and systems; engine cluster mounted in the S-IV
stage of Saturn I .... ............................................... 139
5-2 engine specifics, system
Saturn S-IV stages ...........
Seven photos of manufacturi
Comparison of S-IVB stages
S-IVB stage rollout and testi
S-IC stage Saturn V launch ve
Five photos of skin fabrication
Six photos of assembly and testing of the S-IC stage
Seven photos of fabrication and assembly of the S-I1 ..................... 220
The mission control center
ST- 124 inertial guidance plat
.................... 246
.......................... 268
Saturn contractors ..... .......................... 268
Two organization charts
Photo of Arthur Rudol .......................... 273
.................... 277
.......................... 279
Photo of MSFC's Saturn V program control center ............................ 286
S-IC flight stage at MSFC on its transporter .................................. 300
S-I1 stage on its transporter ..........................................
Five photos of the NASA barge fleet ..................................
Four photos of Saturn air transpor .... .............3 16
USNSPoint Barrow ..................................................
Saturn transportation equipment ................................. 319
Three views of Saturn I test flights .......................
Two views of Pegasus payloads for Saturn I .................................. 333
Cutaway drawing and two views of the Saturn IB launch vehicle ................ 342
AS-501, first flight-r ................................. 343
Launch Complex
Mobile Service St ........................................... 365
Apollo8 .................................................................... 367
Apollo I1 in flight; control room after launch; Astronaut Edwin Aldrin
prepares to step onto lunar surface; lunar sample chest .................... 373
Apollo I7 lunar roving vehicle .
Commonality of Saturn hardware ............................................ 380
Two photos of Saturn and Skylab
Two views of Saturn and the Apoll ....................... 389
Four photos of Huntsville, Alab
Foreword
ew of man’s technological endeavors compare in scope of signifi-
Fcance to the development of the Saturn family of launch vehicles.
At the time of this writing in 1979, we may still be too close to the
project to see it objectively from the perspective of history, but I expect
that future historians will compare the development of Saturn to such
great and imaginative projects as the building of the Panama Canal and
to such latter day technological achievements as the Manhattan Project.
In terms of both vision and achievement, Saturn may surpass them all.
It was as if the Wright Brothers had gone from building their
original Wright Flyer in 1903 to developing a supersonic Concorde in
1913. Unimaginable; yet in 10 short years the builders of Saturn
progressed from the small, single-engine rockets like Redstone to the
giant vehicle with clustered engines that put man on the moon. Our
Earth-to-orbit weight-lifting capability grew in that decade by 10 thou-
sand times.
Saturn was an engineering masterpiece. The ultimate Saturn, taller
than the Statue of Liberty, had a takeoff weight that exceeded that of 25
fully loaded jet airliners, and produced as much power as 85 Hoover
Dams.
The Saturn program was also a masterpiece of management. There
are those who hold that one of the principal benefits this country derived
from the Apollo-Saturn lunar landing program was the development of a
new and extraordinary management approach through which the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration directed vast human and material
resources toward a common purpose. The system that was developed to
meet the incredible complexities of the program, taking account of its
pioneering nature and the time constraint imposed, provides a pattern
for managing a broad spectrum of future technological, scientific, and
social endeavors.
One of the most remarkable things about the Saturn program was its
success rate. An early press release openly stated that because of the
xi