Space Rocket History #103 – Saturn Development 1957 – 1960

Posted on March 5, 2015 by spac9750

Many historians agree, the U.S. took its first step toward the moon in the spring of 1957, four years before President Kennedy declared the national goal of landing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to the Earth. While still preparing for the launch of its first Jupiter (May 31 1957), the Army rocket team at Huntsville, Alabama, began studies of a booster ten times more powerful than the 150,000-pound thrust Jupiter…

Clustered Booster

Thor-Jupiter Engine

Early H-1 Engine

Launch Complex 34 Cape Canaveral

Proposed Saturn B Rocket

Proposed Saturn C Rocket

Saturn with Titan & Atlas Upper Stages

Saturn C-1 and Earlier Vehicles

Proposed Saturn C-2 Rocket

Booster Stage (S-I)

Second Stage (S-IV)

Jan 29

Space Rocket History #98 – Apollo Beginnings

Posted on January 29, 2015 by spac9750

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President Kennedy proposed the manned lunar landing as the focus of the US space program but, at the time of his address, only one American, Alan B. Shepard, Jr. had been into space, on a suborbital lob shot lasting 15 minutes. No rocket launch vehicle was available for a lunar voyage and there was no agreed upon method for placing any kind of spacecraft safely on the lunar surface and getting it back to the earth. Nor was there agreement within NASA itself on how it should be done.

Astronauts leave the spacecraft to investigate the lunar surface.

The return vehicle takes off from the moon.

The reentry vehicle begins to enter the atmosphere after jettisoning the propulsion unit.

Feb 06

Space Rocket History #49 – Gemini Systems Design – 1962

Posted on February 6, 2014 by spac9750

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On January 3 1962, “Gemini” became the official designation of the Mercury Mark II program. The name had been suggested by Alex Nagy of NASA Headquarters because the twin stars Castor and Pollux in constellation Gemini (the Twins) seemed to him to symbolize the program’s two-man crew, its rendezvous mission, and its relation to Mercury. Coincidentally, the astronomical symbol (II) for Gemini, the third constellation of the zodiac, corresponded neatly to the Mark II designation…