Published: 1 September 2008
Air & Space Power
Journal - Fall 2008
Saturn V: The Complete Manufacturing and Test Records plus Supplemental
Material by Alan Lawrie and Robert Godwin. Apogee Books, Collectors Guide
Publishing (http://www.apogeebooks.com), 1440 Graham’s Lane, Unit no. 2,
Burlington, Ontario, L7S 1W3, Canada, 2005, 308 pages, $27.95 (softcover).
Air and space engineer Alan Lawrie has compiled a very interesting work. In
Saturn V, he and publisher Robert Godwin offer information on the development
and manufacturing of the propulsion system that enabled Americans to reach the
moon in the 1960s and 1970s. The Saturn V, the most powerful rocket ever built,
had capabilities both awesome and awful to witness. Representing the culmination
of earlier rocket development and test programs, it stood 363 feet tall. The
first stage generated 7.5 million pounds of thrust from five massive engines
developed for the system. This engine, known as the F-1, represented some of the
most significant engineering accomplishments of the Apollo program, requiring
the development of new alloys and different construction techniques to withstand
the extreme heat and shock of firing. The second stage presented enormous
challenges to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
engineers, very nearly causing the United States to miss its lunar-landing goal.
Consisting of five engines burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, this stage
could deliver 1 million pounds of thrust. It was always behind schedule,
requiring constant attention and additional funding to ensure completion. By
comparison, both the first and third stages of the Saturn V development program
moved forward relatively smoothly.
Representing a triumph of systems management, the Saturn V program required that NASA juggle prime contracts with Boeing for the S-IC, first stage; North American Aviation, S-II, second stage; Douglas Aircraft, S-IVB, third stage; Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation, J-2 and F-1 engines; and IBM, Saturn instruments. These prime contractors, with more than 250 subcontractors, provided millions of parts for use in the Saturn launch vehicle, all meeting exacting specifications for performance and reliability. The total cost expended on development was massive, amounting to $9.3 billion.
Saturn V is an important story, deserving serious attention from historians. An official history, Roger E. Bilstein’s Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles (Washington, DC: NASA, 1980; reprinted in 1996 by NASA and in 2003 by University Press of Florida), which offers an exceptionally capable narrative history, is the appropriate place to start any serious study of the Saturn V moon rocket. Lawrie’s volume is a compilation of technical data, much of it reprinted from elsewhere and some of it offering an important set of details about the program. The first item reprinted, the “Saturn V News Reference” of August 1967, intended for the media and others seeking detailed information about the program, remains a valuable source 40 years after publication. It has also been available for downloading from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center on the World Wide Web for many years at http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/saturnv_press_kit.html. Lawrie also reprints the “Saturn V Payload Planners Guide,” a document from November 1965 intended as a source of detailed knowledge needed by any organization that might launch a payload on a Saturn V. (At the time, NASA anticipated that the Saturn would become the launcher of choice for all manner of spacecraft.) Because of this document’s rarity, it is a welcome addition to the volume.
The most useful part of the book is Lawrie’s compilation of manufacturing and test records concerning each of the stages built for the Saturn V, as well as for each of the engines constructed for the moon program. Lawrie’s ferreting out obscure data from a variety of sources to construct this discussion represents a decidedly useful contribution to knowledge about the program. Finally, as is the case with many Apogee publications, Robert Godwin has found and offered on DVD a selection of engine tests, assembly sequences, and manufacturing film to round out the work.
Saturn V: The Complete Manufacturing and Test Records plus Supplemental Material is a useful compilation of information about the rocket that carried astronauts to the moon. It is not, per se, concerned with the moon landings or any other aspect of the program. Even the discussion of the propulsion system ends with delivery of each stage to the Kennedy Space Center, where it was assembled for launch. This book’s greatest value lies in providing technical details about the Saturn V’s systems, engines, tests, and manufacturing. It is very much a work aimed at a technical audience that seeks considerable detail about the rocket. As such, it will serve as a useful addition to the literature of the Apollo program.
Roger D. Launius
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC
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