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.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V
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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)
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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)