Space Rocket History #104 – Saturn’s First Flight – SA-1 – Part 1

Just as launch complex 34 dwarfed its predecessors, Saturn’s checkout represented a new magnitude in launch operations. The Saturn C-1 stood three times higher, required six times more fuel, and produced ten times more thrust than the Jupiter. Its size, was only a part of the challenge to the Launch Operations Directorate at Cape Canaveral…

Early Concepts of C-1 and C5

First Horizontal Mating of Saturn

Configuration of Saturn Block 1 and 2

Test of the Palaemon Barge

Booster Movement around Wheeler Dam

S-I & S-IV Stages Aboard Compromise Barge

S-I & S-IV Stages Aboard Barge

Route of the Barge from Tenn. to Fla.

Unloading Barge in Florida

Lifting Saturn SA-1 First Stage

Hoisting Saturn SA-1 First Stage

Erecting the Upper Stages of Saturn SA-1

Launch Complex 34 from the Air

One thought on “Space Rocket History #104 – Saturn’s First Flight – SA-1 – Part 1”

I lived in Huntsville, Alabama from 1962 till 1980. My father worked for Chrysler Corp. test firing the Saturn 1Bs. We got to go visit the test stand once. The Saturn V would rattle our windows at 4pm when they were testing. Dad worked on the Skylab project and the external tank of the Space Shuttle. In 1971 I put together a simulation of the Apollo 15 flight at the new Alabama Space and Rocket Center. Here is a site that tells about it. http://home.earthlink.net/~gdsfrankputnam/apollo15b/