Apollo-Saturn
1B
A Saturn 1B lifting off from Launch Complex 34. (NASA)
On October 27, 1961 a white rocket was seated on
Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Humankind had scarcely entered
space, and now preparations were being made for a flight to the moon.
The rocket on the pad was a Saturn 1, Block I.
Cryogenic liquid oxygen rested in its tanks, waiting for the moment of
ignition. The super cold liquid had attracted moisture from the
surrounding
air, forming sheets of ice on its white exterior.
That moment came when fuel valves were open and
liquid oxygen and kerosene flooded into the eight combustion
chambers. A hypergolic mixture rushed in, and the engines started
burning. Exactly 3.97 seconds later, the hold-down clamps were released
and the Saturn
1,
Block I soared off the pad.
This Saturn 1, Block I was not headed for the
moon.
It wasn't even headed for orbit. Its upper stage was simply a
dummy,
filled with water instead of fuel. When the first stage burned
out, the rest of the rocket arced over and plummeted into the ocean.
From a technical standpoint, this flight could be
considered trivial. But, from an historical standpoint it was
very important. It was the first flight of the Saturn rocket,
which
was the first rocket to be developed solely for the purpose of space
exploration (as opposed to the other rockets flown to that time, such
as the Mercury-Redstone,
which were converted missiles).
The Saturn 1, Block I was followed by the Saturn 1, Block II, which had
a functional upper stage and
carried a spacecraft on top.
This, in turn was the predecessor to
the Saturn 1B, which was used to test the Apollo hardware in orbit. The
first test of the LM was launched on a Saturn 1B without an Apollo CSM
on top (on Apollo 5). The Apollo 7 mission thundered aloft on a Saturn
1B to prove the design of the Apollo CSM in space. There were four
other manned Saturn 1B launches: three to carry crews to the Skylab
station, and one for the triumphant Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.
Two Saturn 1Bs survive on display, one in Alabama and one in Florida.
Saturn
1B Specifications
Country: USA
Organization: NASA
Length: 51 meters
Diameter: 6.6 meters
Mass: 589,770 kilograms
Thrust: 743,890 kgf
Cost: $107,000,000
Launches: 9
Failures: 0