SPACE HISTORY: Saturn V Rocket That Launched to the Moon Rolled Out of KSC 50 Years Ago

By  //  May 21, 2019

most powerful rocket ever flown successfully

The Saturn V rocket that would launch Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the Moon rolled out of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building today in 1969. (NASA image)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA – The Saturn V rocket that would launch Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the Moon rolled out of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building this week in 1969.

At 363 feet tall, the massive vehicle made the slow, 3.5-mile trek to Launch Pad 39A at an average speed of less than 1 mile per hour. Countdown to the Apollo 11 Moon landing: 61 days.

The Saturn V was a rocket NASA built to send people to the moon. (The V in the name is the Roman numeral five.)

The Saturn V was a type of rocket called a Heavy Lift Vehicle. That means it was very powerful.

It was the most powerful rocket that had ever flown successfully. The Saturn V was used in the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Saturn V rocket was 111 meters (363 feet) tall, about the height of a 36-story-tall building, and 18 meters (60 feet) taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Fully fueled for liftoff, the Saturn V weighed 2.8 million kilograms (6.2 million pounds), the weight of about 400 elephants.

The rocket generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust at launch, creating more power than 85 Hoover Dams.

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