Portal:Space exploration/Featured/September 2006

The Saturn V (pronounced 'Saturn Five,' popularly known as the Moon Rocket) was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs.

The largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors. It remains the most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operational status, from a height, weight and payload standpoint, although the Russian Energia, which flew only two test missions, had slightly more takeoff thrust.

In all, NASA launched thirteen Saturn V rockets between 1967 and 1973, with no loss of payload. The design payload was the manned Apollo spacecraft used by NASA for moon landings, and the Saturn V went on to launch the Skylab space station.

The three stages of the Saturn V were developed by various NASA contractors, but following a sequence of mergers and takeovers all of them are now owned by Boeing. Each first and second stage was test fired at the Stennis Space Center located near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The facility was later used for the testing and verification of both the Space Shuttle Main Engine and the newer RS-68 rocket engine currently used on the Delta IV EELV rocket and in the future, on the Ares V rocket.