A Landmark Rocket Sent Humanity to the Moon

It will be 56 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing come July 2025. That historic feat was made possible by the Saturn V rocket, designed and engineered at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. At the time, this heavy lift vehicle was the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever built. It moved people, ships, and even a space station beyond Earth's atmosphere.

In fact, it still holds the record for the largest payload delivered to low Earth orbit at 141 metric tons, which included the Apollo command and lunar modules, plus enough fuel to travel to and from the moon. 

In July 1980, ASME designated the Saturn V as a historic mechanical engineering landmark through its History and Heritage Landmarks Program, recognizing “The largest rocket engines built at the time of the first U.S. missions to the moon” and marking its contributions to the evolution of mechanical engineering.

 

Loads of power 

Standing 363 feet tall and weighing 6.2 million pounds, the Saturn V required some incredible engineering to get off the ground. Instead of sending the entire mass into space, engineers decided to instead design the rocket to ignite in three stages, each of which would detach after depleting its fuel. 

Saturn V's S-IC or first stage’s design was famously based on that of a ballistic missile—just a lot bigger. Five Rocketdyne F-1 rocket engines—which is where the V comes from in Saturn V—attached to the rocket’s first stage created 7.6 million pounds of thrust at launch to get the vessel up to an altitude of 42 miles. And these engines did that in just 2.5 minutes while burning 4.5 million pounds of fuel, allowing the ship to reach Mach 7. 

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Each F-1 engine was 18 feet tall by 12 feet wide and generated about 1.5 million pounds of thrust alone, fueled by a combination of RP-1 kerosene (203,000 gallons) and liquid oxygen (318,000 gallons). 

During a series of lectures on Apollo propulsion development held on April 25, 2006 at Stennis Space Center that were published in “Remembering The Giants: Apollo Rocket Propulsion Development,” Bob Biggs, who was lead development engineer and development project engineer on the F-1 Engine Program, explained that the F-1 engines saw more than 280,000 seconds of total burn time throughout the entire Apollo program. That included 12 Apollo flights and the Skylab Space Station launch. Those 13 missions required a total of 65 F-1 engines, which all proved 100 percent reliable. 

The S-II or second stage also featured five engines, but these were Rocketdyne J-2 engines powered by liquid hydrogen (260,000 gallons) and liquid oxygen (80,000 gallons), which sent the spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Each engine was about 11 feet tall by 7 feet wide. After the first and second stages completed their tasks, they fell off into the ocean. 

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Finally, the S-IVB or third stage, equipped with just one J-2 engine, propelled the spacecraft on the final leg to the moon. This engine burned about 66,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and 19,000 gallons of liquid oxygen. Once its job was complete, the third stage also fell off, left adrift in space (although a few fell to the moon as well).

Also speaking at Stennis back in 2006, Paul Coffman, who was manager of J-2 engine development and flight support, explained: “In the S-IV-B stage, it was a single engine, but that single engine had to restart. The Apollo mission called for the entire vehicle to reach orbital velocity in low Earth orbit after the first firing of the Saturn-IV-B stage and, subsequently, to fire a second time to go on to the moon. ... It was an open-cycle gas generator engine delivering up to 230,000 pounds of thrust.” 

In total, there were 152 J-2 engines made for the Apollo program, along with 38 development engines. 

 

Inspiring the Future 

Apollo 17 in 1972 marked the end of the Apollo program and Saturn V would see its final launch in 1973, when Skylab was sent into orbit. Afterward, NASA turned its attention toward sustainable and reusable access to low Earth orbit, which saw the birth of the shuttle program. Today, NASA is once again targeting the moon, this time with the Artemis program and the Space Launch System (SLS)—Saturn V’s successor. 

In November 2022, Artemis I successfully flew around the moon and plans are in place for Artemis II to follow suit in 2026. On July 16, 2024, at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, NASA crews rolled out the 212-foot-long core stage of the SLS for Artemis II to travel to Kennedy Space Center in preparation for that launch. 

“It's fitting that we marked this milestone on the 55th anniversary of the liftoff of Apollo 11. Like the SLS core stage, Saturn V hardware, that Apollo mission, and those following were built right here at Michoud,” said John Honeycutt, NASA’s SLS program manager at the event. “This facility's got quite a history, but more importantly it's got quite a future. Apollo 11 showed generations of people that we could go to the moon. The Artemis II mission and those that follow will do the same thing for the Artemis generation.” 

Not only that, but the SLS features an inline rocket design that’s similar to the Saturn V, explained Matt Stites, senior director and chief engineer of the SLS program at Boeing. 

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“Like Saturn, it's got stages that separate through the flight. That's very common with rocket systems across the board to have various stages separate throughout the flight,” Stites continued. “Size-wise, SLS is a little bit shorter than Saturn V was, but with the RS-25 engines provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne, it actually produces more thrust during launch and ascent than the Saturn V.” 

While none of the Saturn V rockets were completely found after their launches, since they weren’t designed to be reused, some parts have been recovered from the ocean floor. Today, just three full-sized Saturn V rockets are on display—only one is comprised of all flight-certified hardware, which is located at Johnson Space Center’s George W.S. Abbey Rocket Park south of Houston. That’s also where a commemorative ASME plaque sits, honoring Saturn V’s place in engineering history. 

Louise Poirier is senior editor.