This Day In Space - August 16


By KD Martin


Rocketdyne F-1 engine   ↔

August 16, 1961 - F-1 Engine   The most powerful single nozzle engine ever built, the F-1 for the Saturn V Apollo Missions, is test fired today.   The F-1 uses liquid oxygen and  RP-1 (kerosene) as fuel, at the rate of 43,882 gallons / minute.  Previous tests showed instability in the nozzle due to improper fuel injector design.  This test is succesful and any instabilities are self-damped within 1/10 second.

Five Rocketdyne F-1 engines will power the first stage, the S1-C, of the giant Saturn rocket.  Each engine provides more than 1,500,000 pounds of thrust, for a total of 7,500,000 pounds of thrust for the S1-C.

The combined propellant flow rate of the five F-1s in the Saturn V is 3,357 US gallons (12,710 l) per second, which would empty a 30,000 US gallons swimming pool in 8.9 seconds.  Each F-1 engine has more thrust than all three space shuttle main engines combined.

Notice the entire rocket stack shake as the 5 F-1 engines are ignited.  It's difficult to imagine the power generated that can shake that monster Saturn V.

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Saturn S-IVB   ↔

August 16, 1962 - Saturn S-IV Rocket   The first successful test of the Saturn S-IV rocket is completed at the Douglas Aircraft Corporation.  This rocket will be used as the second stage of the Saturn I and the third stage of the Saturn V Apollo Moon Rocket.

The S-IVB will provide the thrust needed for TLI, Trans Lunar Injection and is the "garage" for the Lunar Module (LM).  Using the Rocketdyne J-2 engine, which is restartable, the S-IVB provides 200,000 pounds of thrust using liquid hydrogen and oxygen as propellants.



Saturn S-IVB cutaway   ↔

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Apollo 14 crew, Roosa is on the left   ↔


On this date in 1933, Astronaut Stuart Roosa was born in Durango, CO.  Roosa was CMP on the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon.

Excellent job KD. What an experience, sitting on top of all that power.

I can't believe we had the hardware ready to go to the Moon and the doggone govt. canceled the last 2 missions.  A Saturn V is pretty tough to fit into a museum.

One "full up" S-V lies on its side outside the Johnson Space Center near Houston, TX.  In the 1970s it was possible to walk up and touch it.  There's a picture of me standing inside one of the F-1 engines, my head didn't reach the center point of the bell.