Saturn V Fallen on Hard Times

n9fzx writes "The best remaining artifact of the Apollo Program, Huntsville's Saturn V, is 'pocked with pits and cracks, and patches of mold and mildew', having survived for forty years outdoors. Alabama's U.S. Space and Rocket Center is trying to raise a measly $5 million in order to preserve the beast, with $1.5 million in the kitty so far. Paypal, anyone?"

Comments

never should have been left to rot

[Barbarian]

It should have been used! I assume this is a complete rocket and not a replica, and when the Saturn V's were in service probably could have been launched. It is too bad it was allowed to wither away. I assume that it was abandoned along with the other remaining Saturn V rockets when the moon program was suddenly terminated and the focus shifted to the low-orbit space shuttle.

I remember that thing

[The Tyro]

We used to drive past that rocket whenever we would travel to visit family down in New Orleans.

It looks big in person... looked even bigger as a kid... truly an impressive sight.

one way trip to mars, anyone?

[vnv]

"They come up with a plan to launch a manned, one-way mission to Titan using the remaining shuttle fleet and vintage Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V launchers."

If Stephen Baxter could use the Saturn V for a one way trip to Titan, I see no reason why we can't use it for Mars instead! Baxter has even done the research :-)

And just for the record, yes the book does drag, but it also has a great story of a dilapidated American space program doing something heroic which I found a tale worth reading.

sheesh...

[mraymer]

Yeah, it's only one of the most important human creations of all time. No big deal or anything. I can see why raising $1.5 mil would be an issue...

Oh wait, that doesn't make sense at all.

Too bad I don't have an extra $1.5M lying around somewhere. Maybe I could talk to Capital One about raising my credit limit? ;)

Anyway, it was truly a remarkable construction. Everything about the Saturn V was huge. From the buildings involved in construction to the enormous crawler built to haul the damn thing. We're talking an absolutely massive scale... In fact, according to the history channel's show Modern Marvels, the only human-produced sound louder than a Saturn V at lift-off is the detonation of an atomic bomb.

It is a historical irony that space exploration takes second place to mass destruction in decibel output, though. Perhaps that says something about human nature?

Interesting stuff about Saturn V

[Realistic_Dragon]

Only has a Thrust To Weight of 1.5 (compared to >2 TW on a Eurofighter)

Weighed 5 million pounds fueled

Main engines burned for less than 2.5 minutes

Was travelling 6,000mph at burnout

Was slightly more fuel efficient than a Crystler SUV

Re:Interesting stuff about Saturn V

[thogard]

I've seen a F15 go up at an AFB (not a air show where its much less impressive). I've seen most of the Sat V go up too from Coco beach or the three mile observation point. They where much more impressive. The F15 at 4 minutes is at 104,000 ft and out of fuel but the Saturn V would put the 2nd stage above 40 miles up in less than three minutes while being downrange 78 miles. Apollo 17 was launched at night and turned part of the sky blue. It was quite impressive.

5 million?

[markh1967]

This seems a lot of money to preserve what is mostly a large metal tube. What are they planning on doing that will cost that much? It's a museum piece so the components don't have to be kept in working order; it just has to look intact wherever they are visible.

JSC Saturn V

[Alioth]

I used to work (until about 1.5 years ago) pretty much opposite the Johnson Space Center in Houston. They have a Saturn V outside there - I often took people who came to visit me to JSC, and we'd have a look around the rocket park.

It's an impressive thing up close. From our parking lot at work, it didn't look that impressive. But when you got up close to it, it was another story.

However, the Saturn V at JSC is also in pretty poor shape - it's corroded right through in places if you look closely. The white paintwork on the CM is badly cracked. Apparently, it also became a home for some owls (which is not a bad thing really).

The best artifact inside JSC is an Apollo capsule that went to the moon and back. You can actually (or could when I was last there) touch the heat shield - it's neat touching something that's been to the Moon and back. When you look at it closely, with its primitive electronics and its small size, you wonder how they ever did it.