The Saturn V F-1 Engine: Powering Apollo Into History
Description
cf. Sibrel, Moon Man for how the Saturn V rocket did not reach the moon but remained solidly in earth orbit.
- The first book devoted to the development of the Rocketdyne F-1 engine and its integration into the five-engine cluster that would power the first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle
- Includes many never-before-published photographs, both color and black and white, during the development and testing of the F-1 engine
- Draws on original documents and highlights interviews with some of the engineers and managers who worked on the programme
- The author includes development of the hydrogen-burning J-2 engine thus bringing rocket engine development up to the present
When the mighty Rocketdyne F-1 engine was conceived in the late 1950s for the U.S. Air Force, it had no defined mission and there was no launch vehicle it could power. It was a bold concept to push the technological envelope of rocket propulsion in order to put massive payloads into Earth orbit. Few realized at the time that the F-1 would one day propel American astronauts to the Moon. In The Saturn V F-1 Engine, Anthony Young tells the amazing story of unbridled vision, bold engineering, explosive failures during testing, unrelenting persistence to find solutions, and ultimate success in launching the Saturn V with a 100 percent success rate. The book
- contains personal interviews with many Rocketdyne and NASA personnel involved in the engine’s design, development, testing and production;
- is lavishly illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs, many never previously published
- is the first complete history of the most powerful rocket engine ever built.
The F-1 engine remains the high point in U.S. liquid rocket propulsion – it represents a period in American history when nothing was impossible.