The Saturn V was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs. It was the largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, although larger models were theorised. The rocket was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph at the Marshall Space Flight Center, with the lead contractors being The Boeing Company, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company and IBM. On all but one of its flights, the Saturn V consisted of three stages - the S-IC first stage, S-II second stage and the S-IVB third stage. All three stages used liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. The first stage used RP-1 for fuel, while the second and third stages used liquid hydrogen. During the course of an average mission the rocket was used for a total of about 20 minutes. Thirteen Saturn V rockets were launched from 1967 to 1973, with a perfect launch record. (Although Apollo 6 and Apollo 13 did lose engines, the onboard computers were able to compensate.) The main payloads of the rocket were the Apollo spacecraft which carried the NASA astronauts to the Moon. It also launched the Skylab space station.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1868: The first traffic lights were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London, England. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/traffic_light)

1901: The first Nobel Prizes were awarded, on the anniversary of the 1896 death of their creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize)

1936: Edward VIII, the only British monarch to have voluntarily relinquished the throne, signed his instrument of abdication. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_of_the_United_Kingdom)

1965: The Grateful Dead played its first concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_Dead)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves." -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin)