Werner Von Braun standing next to the five F-1 engines of a Saturn V on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center

The Saturn V rocket was a type of rocket called a Heavy Lift Vehicle, meaning it was very powerful and could launch heavy payloads into orbit or beyond. It had three stages, each with its own engines and fuel tanks, that would separate from the rocket after burning out. The Saturn V was human-rated, meaning it was designed to carry humans safely. It was also powered by liquid fuel, which gave it more thrust and efficiency than solid fuel rockets.
It was 111 meters (363 feet) tall, about the height of a 36-story building, and 18 meters (60 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty. It weighed 2.8 million kilograms (6.2 million pounds) when fully fueled for liftoff, the weight of about 400 elephants. It generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust at launch, creating more power than 85 Hoover Dams. It could launch about 118,000 kilograms (130 tons) into Earth orbit, or about 43,500 kilograms (50 tons) to the moon. That’s about as much weight as 10 or four school buses, respectively.

It had five F-1 engines in its first stage, which were the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engines ever developed. Each F-1 engine produced 1.5 million newtons (337,000 pounds) of thrust at sea level. The F-1 engines were so loud that they could be heard up to 64 kilometers (40 miles) away from the launch site.
The person photographed here is Werner von Braun. Werner von Braun was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect who played a prominent role in the development of rocket technology and space exploration. He was also a member of the Nazi Party and the SS, which has raised ethical questions about his legacy.

He helped design and co-develop the V-2 rocket, the first artificial object to travel into space, for Nazi Germany during World War II. The V-2 was used as a weapon against Allied cities, killing thousands of civilians. He was secretly moved to the United States after the war, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip. He worked for the US Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the first US satellite Explorer 1 in 1958. He became the director of the Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket, the most powerful rocket ever flown successfully. The Saturn V was used to launch astronauts to the moon as part of the Apollo program, and to launch Skylab, the first American space station.

📷 NASA

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