Re: Saturn 1/1B Extant Hardware



Herb Schaltegger wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 14:05:47 -0500, Ed Kyle wrote
> (in article <1120590347.071741.239800@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):
>
> > SIVB-211 (displayed as dummy Skylab just left of Saturn V) at
> > Huntsville, AL
> >
> "http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=4&S=8&Z=16&X=10632&Y=76818&W=2&qs=%7chuntsville%7cal%7c";
>
> Has that always been displayed that way? I don't remember it at all.
> Didn't there used to be an engineering mockup of the Skylab workshop
> inside the main hall of Space and Rocket Center? Or am I
> mis-remembering? I used to have a few dozen photos of all the stuff
> there in the early 90's, but they disappeared during the divorce. :-/

Until 1979, this S-IVB stage appears to have been
displayed horizontally with the SA-211 first stage
on the grounds of Marshall Space Flight Center.
It would have moved to the museum after the first
stage was moved to Ardmore in 1980 or so.

There is a chance that SA-211 may have been shipped
to Japan for a couple of years during the mid-1970s,
but I've never been able to confirm this.

The SA-T stage at the MSFC test area is the oldest
and, in my opinion, most historic Saturn. It was
the very first Saturn that performed 31 static test
firings on the East Tower, for example. This is the
booster that von Braun and Co. would have spent more
time tinkering with than any other. This was the
hardware that taught them how to build big rockets.

SA-T is unquestionably in worse shape, exterior-
wise, than any other Saturn hardware I've seen - and
I've seen almost all of them now. But SA-T also
seems to have been preserved better, in some ways,
than other Saturn stages. It was hardly modified
for display, like SA-211, so it appears much the same
way it did the last time MSFC personnel turned a bolt
on it. It has a complete set of early H-1 engines all
in their proper places, for example, and it has
turbopump exhaust ducts that are not present on other
displayed boosters, etc. It still has a 120 inch
diameter interstage truss part designed to support
the orignally planned Titan second stage! It has
holes drilled in it that show where some brackets
were originally positioned, then repositioned, etc.
It has patches riveted over patches. A technological
historian could spend a career on it, I suspect.

- Ed Kyle

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Saturn 1/1B Extant Hardware
    ... Ed Kyle wrote: ... > The SA-T stage at the MSFC test area is the oldest ... > and, in my opinion, most historic Saturn. ... > for display, like SA-211, so it appears much the same ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: visiting KSC from WDW
    ... one at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama (the Marshall Space Flight Center is located near there). ... Huntsville also has on display an erect full scale model of the Saturn V. ...
    (rec.arts.disney.parks)
  • Re: SpaceLoft XL Failure
    ... Jeff Clark wrote: ... Saturn V right now, (Scratch design has been a nightmare). ... Saturn V in both 1/96 and 1/48 scale for display, ...
    (sci.space.history)
  • Re: Scrapping of Saturn-V
    ... There is no 3rd Saturn V. ... was used for Skylab (but its S-IVb wasn't and is on display), ... the Saturn V on display in Alabama is not flight hardware, ... second S-IC stage (the structural test article, ...
    (sci.space.history)