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Saturn The Giant
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Saturn The Giant |
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Forty years ago today (May 25, 1961) U.S. president John Kennedy announced [ http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html ] the goal of landing Americans on the Moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy's ambitious speech triggered [ http://www.wamu.org/special/moon.html ] a nearly unprecedented peacetime technological mobilization and one result was the Saturn V [ http://www.hrw.com/science/si-science/earth/spacetravel/ spacerace/SpaceRace/sec300/sec380.html ] moon rocket [ http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Rockets/ ]. Its development directed by rocket pioneer Wernher Von Braun, the three stage Saturn V stood [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-350/ch-3-1.html ] over 36 stories tall. It had a cluster of five first stage [ http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-000559.html ] engines fueled by [ http://users.commkey.net/Braeunig/space/propel.htm ] liquid oxygen and kerosene which together were capable of producing 7.5 million pounds of thrust. Giant Saturn V rockets ultimately hurled [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ contents.html ] nine Apollo missions [ http://history.nasa.gov/apollo.html ] to the Moon and back again [ http://www.literature.org/authors/verne-jules/ round-the-moon/ ] with six landing on the lunar surface [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/ ]. The first landing, by Apollo 11 [ http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/ introduction.htm ], occurred on July 20, 1969 achieving Kennedy's goal. Bathed in light, this Saturn V [ http://www.apollosaturn.com/frame-sv.htm ] awaits an April 11, 1970 launch on the third lunar landing mission, Apollo 13 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010519.html ]. |
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