Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS
Pioneer 11 detected Saturn’s bow shock on Aug. 31, 1979, about 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) out from the planet, thus providing the first conclusive evidence of the existence of Saturn’s magnetic field.
Pioneer 11 Launch
Pioneer 11 Beginning Gravity Slingshot Maneuver
Pioneer 11 Saturn Photo Taken 08/28/1979
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS
Launched in 1972 and weighing 258 kilograms (569 pounds), Pioneer 10 completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter and became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS
No previous maiden launch had gone flawlessly, and the Saturn C-1 was considerably more complicated than any rocket launched thus far. Launch Operations Directorate officials gave the rocket a 75% chance of getting off the ground, and a 30% chance of completing the eight-minute flight…
LC-34 Block House Control Room
Abe Silverstein, Director of Space Flight
All Eight Engines Firing and Liftoff of Saturn SA-1
Saturn SA-1 on Launch Pad 34
Saturn SA-1 Leaving the Pad
The First Saturn (SA-1) in Flight.
The Michoud Facility near New Orleans
Ground Breaking at MSC
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS
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 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
