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Great Read: Killer History on the Saturn Rocket Family – Some of Mankind’s Greatest Hot Rods


Great Read: Killer History on the Saturn Rocket Family – Some of Mankind’s Greatest Hot Rods

With NASA’s announcement of the latest class of astronauts this week we thought it was appropriate to look back a little and take a peek and the vehicles that got us to where we are today in space exploration. When it comes to space and the most awesome American space hot rods ever made were the members of the Saturn rocket family. These were (and are) true marvels of engineering and the stand as some of the best engineering achievements modern man has ever had their grubby mitts on.

It may be possible to consider yourself a gearhead and have no interest in the history of the American space program, but we’re not in that group. The amazing feats accomplished by the USA during the Space Race of the 1960s will stand forever as a true testament to pushing the envelope of human accomplishment and sheer balls. Imagine what kinds of testicular fortitude it took for the astronauts of the day to sit in a little pod above the most powerful man made objects in history. Oh and those objects didn’t have an off switch and in theory had to operate with complete perfection or else you’d be engulfed in fire or sent adrift into the endless abyss of space. We just peed a little thinking about it.

All that being said, not one astronaut died will riding into space on top of a Saturn rocket. We ran across a very cool story from Wired.com  that reviews the history of these massive machines and goes over several of the close calls that they endured during launches and missions into space. There is also a very interesting section that deals with the development of the Launch Escape System, a rocket that would shoot the pod that the guys were in right off the top of the rocket in the event of a launch catastrophe. Thankfully, that system was never used on the launch pad, but the math that went into figuring out how massive the explosion would have been if a Saturn rocket exploded is stunning. The engineers on the project figured that the heat would have been felt for a mile away!

We highly recommend this story if you are into how we kicked the Russian’s ass on the way to the moon, or if you are into insanely powerful objects that are nearly beyond comprehension. Either way you’ll dig it.

Link: Great Balls of Fire: Apollo Rocket Explosions

 


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One thought on “Great Read: Killer History on the Saturn Rocket Family – Some of Mankind’s Greatest Hot Rods

  1. old guy

    The S5 motor was a true marvel – the turbine fuel pumps were driven by combustion gases from a small chamber and made 50,000 HP each !
    Once Nasa closed the checkbook no US company wanted to develop
    and build rocket motors on their own dime so we had to start buying old , used stock from Russia !

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