Friday, September 8, 2017

Saturn V backwash


7 comments:

  1. There's a slow-mo video on YouTube of the Apollo 11 launch. I think it's the first 30 seconds, but the video is about 8 minutes. Real slow-mo. I think that's what this is from. The vid is narrated. And it's awesome.

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    1. Makes you wonder how long a snowball would last, in microseconds.

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  2. I don't think I could ever get tired of reading this story.

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/

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    1. I'm not a rocket buff by any means, but I love the Saturn V. I've got a pic of me standing next to an F1 at the KSC visitor center. And I'm wearing a moon hoax t-shirt. I was sad that no one said anything.

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  3. I was privileged to witness Skylab launch from the northern-most causeway south of Canaveral. Those big, beautiful, bastard F-1s shook the world, and you could hear them for what seems like forever.

    Shuttle, nah, not so much. More like the Saturn 1-bs launched to service Skylab.

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    1. I found a post a while back about that launch and everything that went wrong with it. Stuff literally falling of on the way up. It took a beating but still made it to orbit. I think this is it.

      http://this-space-available.blogspot.com/2016/08/space-myths-busted-how-skylab-nearly.html

      The Saturn 1B in the rocket garden is the rescue rocket for a Skylab crew should it have been needed. The Apollo capsule in the Saturn V center is the rescue capsule with additional seats in the rear for the crew. If memory serves.

      I need to get back down there.

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    2. Yep. Apollo-Soyuz used up pretty much the last of the complete 'sets' of flight hardware.

      What is really interesting about the Apollo program was that if allowed to continue, the capsule contractor was going to start reusing up to 70% of the capsule hardware, and update with new and better 'inner' components.

      Updates to the Saturn rockets, with the F-1a engine being the least of them (lots more thrust) would have given us all the things we did with the Shuttle for equal or less price.

      Oh, the loss (made in 1968, when FedGov shut future development down) of the Apollo-Saturn line is still felt today.

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