The Rise And Fall Of The Saturn

Fifty years ago this month the mighty rocket launched for the first time.

- Ben Evans

On 9 November 1967, veteran journalist Walter Cronkite struggled to make himself heard as the first Saturn V unleashed a raging torrent of flame and ponderously took flight for the Apollo 4 mission. Its raw, naked power was unmistakable. “The building’s shaking,” he intoned. “This big blast window is shaking. We’re holding it with our hands. Oh, the roar is terrific! Part of our roof has come in here.” His usual calmness and poise were momentarily lost, as his gruff voice notched up an octave to overcome the din. For on that day, Cronkite and the people of Florida were left wondering if a rocket had risen or the Earth had sunk.

Flown 13 times between that winter’s morning, 50 years ago, and its final mission in May 1973, the Saturn V retains a mystique as the largest and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status. Standing 110.6m tall – fractionally shorter than St Paul’s Cathedral – it carried five F-1 engines on its first stage, five J-2 engines on its second stage and a single J-2 on its third stage.

As high as a two-storey house, the F-1 remains the largest and most powerful single-chambered liquid-fuelled rocket engine ever developed, whilst the J-2 would fire twice to deliver astronauts into low-Earth orbit and onward to the Moon. Half the size of its big brother, the J-2 was America’s largest hydrogen-powered engine until the development of the Space Shuttle’s RS-25. It was also one of few engines of this period that could be ‘restarted’ in space.