Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo Saturn Launch Vehicles (NASA SP)

540 Pages·1997·27.4 MB·English

by  Roger E. Bilstein

Stagesto Saturn
¢
NASA SP-4206
Stagesto Saturn
A Technological History of the
Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles
Roger E. Bilstein
The NASA History Series
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASAHistory Office
Washington, DC20546
1996
Original publication date: 1980
Library of Congress Cataloguing-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 1.21:4206
1. Project Saturn. 1. Tide. II. Series: United
States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NASA history series. III. Series: United States.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA SP: 4206.
TL781.5.$3B54 629.47' 522 79-607154
For salebythe U.S.Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents, MailStop: SSOP,Washington, DC20402-9328
ISBN 0-16-048909-1
To
Wernher yon Braun
1912-1977
and the mett at_d women
who built the Saturn

Contents
Page
FOREWORD .................................................. xi
PREFACE .................................................... xv
ACKNOWLED(;MENTS ......................................... xix
I. PROLOGUE .................................................. 1
1. Concepts and Origins .................................. 3
II. THE SATURN BUILDING BLOCKS .............................. 23
2. Aerospace Alphabet: ABMA, ARPA, MSFC .............. 25
3. Missions, Modes, and Manufacturing .................... 57
Ill. FIRE, SMOKE, AND THUNDER: Tile ENGINES .................... 87
4. Conventional Cryogenics: The H-I and the F-1 ........... 89
5. Unconventional Cryogenics: RL-10 and J-2 .............. 129
IV. BUILDIN(; THE SATURN V .................................... 155
6. From the S-IV to the S-IVB ............................ 157
7. The Lower Stages: S-IC and S-II ........................ 191
8. From Checkout to Launch: The Quintessential Computer ... 235
V. COORDINATION: MEN AND MACHINES ......................... 259
9. Managing Saturn ...................................... 261
10. The Logistics Tangle ................................... 293
VI. STEP BY STEP ............................................... 321
11. Qualifying the Cluster Concept ......................... 323
12. The Giant Leap ....................................... 347
vii
STAGES TO SATURN
Page
VII.
EPILOGUE ................................................... 379
13. Legacies .............................................. 381
APPENDIX A--SCHEMATIC OF SATURN g ....................... 405
APPENDIX B--SATURN g PRELAUNCH--LAUNCH SEQUENCE ...... 407
APPENDIX (;--SATURN FLIGHT HISTORY . ...................... 413
APPENDIX D--SATURN R&D FUNDING HISTORY ................. 421
APPENDIX E--SATURN V CONTRACTORS ....................... 423
APPENDIX F--LOCATION OF REMAINING SATURN HARDWARE .... 439
APPENDIX (;--NASA ORGANIZATION DURING APOLLO-SATURN ... 441
APPENDIX H--MSFC PERSONNEL DURING APOLLO-SATURN ...... 449
NOTES ..................................................... 457
SOURCES AND RESEARCH MATERIAL ........................... 493
INDEX ...................................................... 501
Illustrations
Page
Frontispiece--the Saturn V at LC-39 ......................................... ii
Seven photos of Apollo 11 mission ............................................ 6
Photo of Robert Goddard ................................................... 10
Photo of German rocket pioneers ............................................ 10
Four photos of early rockets in the U.S ....................................... 16
Wernher yon Braun with the first seven astronauts ............................ 20
Launch of Alan Shepard on Mercury-Redstone ............................... 20
Scale comparison of U.S. manned space flight vehicles ......................... 20
Development of Saturn concepts ............................................. 28
Saturn 1 with Mercury-Redstone and Juno II ................................. 30
President Eisenhower with first NASA Administrator T. Keith G]ennan and
Deputy Administrator Hugh Dryden ..................................... 32
Wernher yon Braun with his ABMA senior staff .............................. 38
President Eisenhower dedicates the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center ..... 43
Abe Silverstein tours rocket facility ........................................... 46
Two summary charts from the Silverstein Report .............................. 49
Early versions of the Saturn C-1 and C-5 ..................................... 60
The stable of NASA launch vehicles .......................................... 61
John Houboh and Lunar Orbit Rendezvous .................................. 64
President Kennedy at MSFC ................................................. 68
Four aerial views of MSFC .................................................. 71
Photos of Michoud Operations and Mississippi Test Facility .................... 75
Saturn I design and manufacture ............................................ 82
Saturn IB design and manufacture .......................................... 84
viii