27. The Saturn 5 Rocket
Updated: Oct 2, 2021
This week's blog is all about the Saturn 5 rocket that took people to the moon in the 1960's and 1970's.
The Saturn 5 rocket was the rocket that took the Apollo missions to the moon, In my last blog, I wrote about the first successful trip to the moon, Apollo 11. Check it out here.
Saturn 5 was the ultimate rocket. It sent Apollo 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and the final one, Apollo 17 to the moon, or near the moon. NASA built Saturn 5 because the president at the time, President Kennedy, set a goal to put people on the moon by the end of the decade. It was a hard goal for NASA to keep in their budget (20 billion dollars) and they went a little over but the people paying were okay with that.
Saturn 5 was the tallest rocket ever made! It was taller than the Statue of Liberty! In fact, it was 60 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty (16m)! If you stood on the top of Saturn 5 you would:
Have a great view
Be scared if you looked down
You would fall off
Why would you fall off?
It would be hard to balance up there because you are would be standing on a very delicate tip that would break under your weight. Also, is was a pointed shape at the top to help the rocket be more aerodynamic so it could travel up to the speed of sound and go through the sound barrier. On the footage you can tell when a rocket goes through the sound barrier when you see the rocket has cloudy stuff on its point.
The Saturn 5 rocket was powered by a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen and hydrogen powered the first, second, and third stage of the rocket launch. Mixed together, these elements make a HUGE explosion that pushes the rocket upwards.
The weight of Saturn 5 was a whopping 2.8 million kilograms. That is the weight of 400 elephants! It was heavy! If you tried to lift it, you would not succeed.
WOW!!!!!!!!
As the Saturn 5 rocket reached the upper part of the atmosphere, the first stage of the rocket fell off and the second stage began to burn. The first stage fell down into the Atlantic ocean and was recovered with ships. As the rocket continued higher into the atmosphere, the second stage fuel ran out and the third stage took the rocket up to outer space. They then began their trek to the moon.
Next time on the Give me Space blog I'm going to talk about how NASA sent a probe to the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt.
Give me Space!!!
Henry.
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