An Apollo Engineer explains the Saturn V rocket

[SoonerP226]

From Destin at Smarter Every Day. It's kind of long (59 minutes), but I thought it well worth the time to watch.

 

[Okie4570]

Those nozzles are pretty impressive to stand under when we toured NASA years ago.

 

[Snattlerake]

I watched that yesterday. The IU is hardwired and guides the first three stages. It checks the guidance 25 times a second. Where I am vs where I should be at this point in the journey.

The F1 rocket motor puts out 1 million pounds of thrust and is fuled by a 50,000 pound thrust jet engine pumping kerosene and LOX. I always knew they used the fuel to cool the engines but I thought it would have been the LOX instead of the kerosene due to the low temperature of the LOX. They cool the engine with 800 degree kerosene.

I wondered when in the flight the escape tower was ejected, now I know.

I found it interesting all of the third stages of every mission except one were in orbit around the sun.
The Apollo 12 third stage was given a different command of 25 more miles which put it in a moon orbit instead but it was captured by the sun and it keeps the unusual different orbits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J002E3

 

[adamsredlines]

For me, seeing this in person was one of the most awe-inspiring things I've ever experienced.

I'd put it right there with seeing the Grand Canyon in person for the first time.

Gonna have to watch this video tonight.

 

[SoonerP226]

Here's the full length cut of the above video. It's only 1 hour and 47 minutes...

 

[perfor8]

Standing under this thing, you'll appreciate the balls it took to climb in that tiny cone on the pointy end and say, "light it".

 

[Okie4570]