SATURN GIANT STEP TO THE MOON

[Music] August 1961 a heavily Laden barge moved slowly down a river in in the heart of America's Southland its cargo the first model of Saturn America's largest space vehicle too big for shipment by any other means Saturn was being moved along a 2,000m water route from NASA's Marshall space flight center in Alabama to Cape canavero Florida there it was to make the first flight in the Saturn test program August 15 1958 was the date work on Saturn officially began it was to be the first large rocket developed specifically for scientific space programs an important early step in the United States plans to land men on the moon just 3 years later this first test vehicle called sa1 arrived at the cape to prepare for the initial flight a flight that had to be successful if America's lunar program was to proceed on schedule at the Marshall space flight center Dr Werner Von Brun and the other men who directed the development of the Saturn project looked forward to the first test launch they were eager to confirm the entirely new technology of large rocket design and [Music] construction Saturn's design called for a huge multi-stage vehicle four times more powerful than any other rocket then in use it featured an unusual power concept clustered engines of proven reliability the first 10 Saturns designated C1 type was scheduled to have a cluster of eight engines adapted from the Thor Jupiter programs four engines were mounted rigidly inboard and four mounted outboard on gimbals that move to control the vehicle's attitude during [Music] flight each engine was capable of 188,000 lb of thrust for a total booster thrust of a million A2 lb later more advanced C5 Saturns were to be powered by five engines each one capable of million2 lb of thrust or a total thrust of 7 1/2 million lb an important part of the clustered engine concept was the propellant feed system designed to assure a successful flight even though one of the engines might fail to perform properly the fuel and oxidizer that would have been consumed by a dead engine would be made available to the others and the burning time automatically lengthened to compensate for the lower level of thrust the ultimate goal of the Saturn space giant was to thrust the three-man Apollo spacecraft on the first leg of its Journey To The Moon but there were many steps toward the advanced Saturn that would make this [Music] journey an important milestone for the Saturn project came in April 1960 when a static test firing of the bo to Rocket proved that the clustered engine concept was sound but the real test for Saturn was to come here at Cape canaval on the newly completed 45 acre launch complex 34 largest known rocket launching site in the [Music] world August 15 1961 3 years to the day since the program began launch site Personnel made preparations to erect this first huge test rocket the first section moved into place was the booster stage that would power the first test vehicle this was to be the first of 10 proposed C1 test flights that would show how the clustered engines performed in Flight how the structure of the vehicle's airf frame behaved how the guidance and control systems functioned how the launch facilities and ground support equipment operated [Music] in this first flight test only the booster or first stage was to be powered a non-powered dummy second stage would be added together with a dummy third stage and a dummy payload where the Apollo spacecraft would eventually be carried future fully powered Saturns would thrust Apollo into an orbit around the Earth and eventually Advanced Saturns would launch Apollo on the first part of the Journey To The Moon but the first test flights were to check only the powered booster the Flight Plan called for a booster burnout about 60 Mi above the Earth with a resulting trajectory that would carry the dummy stages to a peak altitude of about 90 Mi and back to Earth approximately 225 mi from lift off point the flight was planned to last about 8 minutes with a maximum velocity of 3700 mph an inertial guidance system was to keep the vehicle on its course once the powered booster was in place the upper stages arrived at the launch site and were hoisted into position later to be filled with water as ballast for the first flight the upper stages would be tested with live engines later in the 10 launch [Music] series finally the dummy nose cone was moved into place in the later test launches in this first series this nose cone would be replaced placed by early models of the Apollo [Music] spacecraft with all stages in place this first Saturn sa1 stood 163 ft high in the Florida Sky taller than a 15 story building weighing in at 925,000 it was ready to prove it could do the job it was designed to [Music] do Dr Von Bron and his associates from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration were on hand to observe the performance of the space giant they knew that despite successful static firings there were many many chances for something to go wrong in flight they believe there was only a 50/50 chance of success for this first critical [Music] launch October 27th 1961 day of the launch the nearby beaches were crowded with curious people who had come to watch Saturn's first test flight television cameras were in place ready to bring the launch to interested viewers throughout the United States and the newsmen were gathered to report the success or the failure of the launching to people throughout the world a few hours before the launch final fueling of the vehicle took place liquid oxygen and kerosene were pumped [Music] aboard launch time minus 1 hour fueling was completed now Saturn had everything it needed to do its job in just 60 minutes it would lift off and head up into space if all went according to plan launch Time - 1 minute Saturn was ready the final 60 seconds of the countdown began 42 and a half 43 AK 45 lock tank pressurized jumping seconds okay Power transfer complete top plug disconnected 15 stand retracted 3 2 1 zero [Music] [Music] from the very first performance met all expectations there were no technical holds during countdown all eight engines operated for full duration and 7 m up the vehicle passed the point of Maximum Dynamic pressure a critical moment of flight Saturn's first test flight fulfilled all its objectives but space vehicle Engineers know that a single successful flight may just be luck it takes more to prove success two flights begin to give data to measure and compare at the Marshall space flight center work was proceeding on the second Saturn test vehicle to ready it for flight testing 6 months later one part of the extensive testing program was carried out in a new pressure test facility here NASA technicians checked tanks and mechanical systems with air helium and nitrogen at pressure levels up to 3,000 lb per square [Music] in and once again static test firings were important steps in the checkout program at Marshall the second Saturn vehicle successfully completed all the tests at Marshall it was prepared for shipment to the launching area again the trip by BGE down the 2,000m water rout to Cape canaval this second Saturn designated sa2 was identical to the first vehicle except for minor improvements on February 27th 1962 the launch crew at pad 34 began to erect sa2 and prepare it for flight the second Saturn had quite a task to perform here at the cape go through a 12-hour countdown with no technical delays duplicate the unqualified success of the sa1 booster firing perform to full expectation in Flight only when it did would NASA Engineers know for certain that the success of the first launch was more than luck and that they could proceed with the development of Saturn according to the original [Music] schedule the flight plan for this second Saturn was essentially the same as the first only the booster would be tested live again it would burn out at an altitude of about 60 Mi ordinarily this would mean a trajectory of about 88 Mi and an impact point about 225 Mi out in the Atlantic however there was one additional experiment in this second test after booster burnout the Saturn vehicle was to be deliberately destroyed at about 65 M altitude this would relase into the upper a of the 95 tons of water carried as ballast in the upper stages this experiment called project high water would let NASA scientists observe ve what happens when a large volume of water is released in the near vacuum of the upper atmosphere and would contribute to our knowledge of high altitude physics April 25th 1962 the day of the second launch [Music] finally sa 2 stood alone free from its Gantry ready for flight seconds okay Power transfer complete top plug disconnected retracted 4 3 2 1 zero IGN [Music] the second test launch duplicated the first again Saturn had met all performance expectations project high water was also accomplished successfully now that these first two experimental Space Giants had met their test objectives what was next for America's lunar program at the Marshall space flight center work proceeded on schedule as new models of Saturn were being readed for flight test the immediate goal of the Luna program was to put two and three man spacecraft into Earth orbit as quickly as possible then larger more powerful Saturn would carry Apollo to the vicinity of the [Music] Moon the success of ESS 1 and the success of essay 2 have been two Giant Steps toward the not too distant day when America's vast lunar program will accomplish its objectives