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At its founding, the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) inherited the Army's Jupiter and Redstone test stands, but much larger facilities were needed for the giant stages of the Saturn V. From 1960 to 1964, the existing stands were remodeled and a sizable new test area was developed. The new comprehensive test complex for propulsion and structural dynamics was unique within the nation and the free world, and they remain so today because they were constructed with foresight to meet the future as well as on going needs. Construction of the S-IC Static test stand complex began in 1961 in the west test area of MSFC, and was completed in 1964. The S-IC static test stand was designed to develop and test the 138-ft long and 33-ft diameter Saturn V S-IC first stage, or booster stage, weighing in at 280,000 pounds. Required to hold down the brute force of a 7,500,000-pound thrust produced by 5 F-1 engines, the S-IC static test stand was designed and constructed with the strength of hundreds of tons of steel and 12,000,000 pounds of cement, planted down to bedrock 40 feet below ground level. The foundation walls, constructed with concrete and steel, are 4 feet thick. The base structure consists of four towers with 40-foot-thick walls extending upward 144 feet above ground level. The structure was topped by a crane with a 135-foot boom. With the boom in the upright position, the stand was given an overall height of 405 feet, placing it among the highest structures in Alabama at the time. In addition to the stand itself, related facilities were constructed during this time. Built directly east of the test stand was the Block House, which served as the control center for the test stand. The two were connected by a narrow access tunnel which housed the cables for the controls. This construction photo taken August 17, 1962 depicts a view of the Block House from the test stand site. The tunnel opening is visible in the forefront center of the photo.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: SPD-MARSH-0600551
Date: August 17, 1962
The Atlas V rocket that will launch Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is coming together inside a United Launch Alliance facility in Decatur, Alabama. Boeing’s Starliner will launch on the Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Photo credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
The Atlas V rocket that will launch Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is coming together inside a United Launch Alliance facility in Decatur, Alabama. Boeing’s Starliner will launch on the Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Photo credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
SA-1 liftoff: MSFC re-release to mark the 20th Anniversary of the first research and development flight of the Saturn space vehicle (SA-1), 27 October 1961.
“Thrust structure for the Saturn V moon rocket first stage (S-IC) is lowered into its vertical assembly position, as assembly of the first S-IC stage began this week at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Michoud Operations. The 33-foot-diameter, 90,000-pound corrugated tail section, built by the Boeing Company’s Launch Systems Branch, will support the booster’s five, 1.5-million-pound-thrust engines. Assembled on top of the thrust structure will be the fuel tank, intertank structure, liquid oxygen tank and forward skirt assembly.”
Hand-highlighted areas are due to this photo having been used for news/press release purposes, and I'm assuming the crude printing techniques of the time required the highlighting to provide definition and delineation within the photo.
Per Wikipedia:
“S-IC-D was the first to be built by Boeing at the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans using the tooling that had been developed in Huntsville.”
Per the Saturn Illustrated Chronology (for 1965):
“Technicians at Michoud on March 24 installed the S-IC-D thrust structure in the Vertical Assembly Building.”
“On October 13 the S-IC-D arrived at MSFC's Saturn V dock after leaving Michoud dock aboard the barge Poseidon October 6, the Poseidon's first trip.”
For 1966:
“Saturn V milestones on January 13 involved the first stage and instrument unit. The S-IC-D booster went into the dynamic test stand at MSFC on this date...”
And for 1967:
“The S-IC-D stage arrived at MTF from Huntsville on April 23. Workmen at MTF placed the stage in storage pending its use in the early fall.”
“In 1970, NASA initiated Phase A contracts to study alternate Space Shuttle designs in addition to the two-stage fully reusable Space Shuttle system already under development. A number of alternate systems were developed to ensure the development of the optimum earth-to-orbit system, including the Stage-and-a-half Chemical Interorbital Shuttle, shown here. The concept would utilize a reusable manned spacecraft with an onboard propulsion system attached to an expendable fuel tank to provide supplementary propellants.”
Above and image at/from:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chemical_Interorbital_Shu...
Credit: Wikimedia Commons website
Excellent reading regarding the Chemical Interorbital Shuttle, i.e. space tug:
www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/chemical-interorbital-sh...
Credit: SECRET PROJECTS FORUM website
Further informative reading, with the image featured on the cover:
ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19740013405/downloads/1974001...
Actually, my primary purpose for posting this was because it’s by Manuel E. Alvarez, an extremely talented & formerly elusive North American Rockwell/Rockwell International artist.
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The fifth and final F-1 engine is about to be installed by Boeing technicians in mid-February 1966, leaving only minor assembly work to complete the stage. S-IC-3 is the first flight Saturn V first stage to be assembled at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF). The New Orleans rocket will be used to launch the flight of Apollo 8. Its five engines produce 7.5-million pounds of thrust, the equivalent of 160-million horsepower in flight, making the first stage the free world’s largest and most powerful rocket.
Above taken from another photo caption and slightly reworded to be applicable.
The remaining engine is visible on the far right, possibly being prepared for hoisting and installation. Some additional great views of the facility installation hoist, and of course, the requisite engine horizontal installation tool: ;-)
archive.org/details/MSFC-6975864
Credit: Internet Archive website
www.boeingimages.com/archive/Saturn%20V%20first%20Stage%2...
Credit: Boeing Images website
As always, excellent additional information - in this case pertaining to vertical engine installation/removal, and great additional links, at:
heroicrelics.org/info/f-1/f-1-vei-g4049.html
Credit: Mike Jetzer/heroicrelics.org
The sixth Saturn IB booster (S-IB-6) built at Michoud for launching in the Apollo moonshot program is rolled aboard barge for upriver trip to Huntsville, Ala., and static firing tests. This is the first booster to be shipped sans the familiar blue protective cover. Technicians decided it wasn't needed. This may be one of the boosters which will lift three astronauts into orbit aboard the Apollo capsule."
I believe it was also the first Saturn I/IB to have all white fuel tanks, not the alternating black and white.
If indeed S-IB-6, an excellent concise history of the vehicle is as follows:
SA-206: (S-IB-6/S-IVB-206/S-IU-206) Launched 5/25/1973 from KSC LC39B with CSM-116 on Skylab-2 orbital mission. Stages originally manufactured in 1966, delivered KSC December 1966, erected on LC37B on January 23, 1967 for AS-206 mission with LM-1, then destacked after AS-204 fire resulted in LM-1 reassignment to SA-204. Returned to Michoud (S-1B-6), Huntington Beach (S-IVB-6) and Huntsville (S-IU-6) during March/April 1967 for storage. Refurbished and tested in 1971-72. S-IU-206 delivered KSC June 1971. S-1B and S-IVB delivered August 1972.
Credit: Space Launch Report website, specifically:
“Saturn V Breadboard, S-IV-B and instrument unit 500ST Stages.”
Awarded the contract September 1964, operated by the Boeing Company, the Saturn V Development Facility, aka the "Saturn V breadboard" at MSFC, would electrically simulate the operation of the Saturn V and its ground and electrical support equipment. Each step at the launch site, through liftoff and flight of each stage, could be computer-simulated at the facility.
Above at:
history.nasa.gov/MHR-5/part-9.htm
I believe "500ST" and/or "500S/T" refer to the simulator/test articles. The complete(?) S-IVB version of such seen here I guess. To include its J-2 engine.
Nearly 100 teams took part in the 2019 Human Exploration Rover Challenge, held April 12-13 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The competition, hosted by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, challenges high school and college teams to design, build and test human-powered roving vehicles inspired by the Apollo lunar missions and future exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This year’s competition marked 25 years since the inaugural event.
Image credit: NASA/Emmett Given
Rover Challenge awards news release
Nearly 100 teams took part in the 2019 Human Exploration Rover Challenge, held April 12-13 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The competition, hosted by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, challenges high school and college teams to design, build and test human-powered roving vehicles inspired by the Apollo lunar missions and future exploration missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This year’s competition marked 25 years since the inaugural event.
Image credit: NASA
Rover Challenge awards news release
About 1962-63 NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, issued a unique set of public relations pamphlets, featuring a small flap that covered part of the front page. The two examples in this series of images represent the Saturn V launch vehicle and the Lunar Module.
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
High school and university students competed in the 2018 Human Exploration Rover Challenge event at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Students came from across the U.S. as well as several foreign countries such as Brazil, Germany, India, and Mexico. This event, which is normally a 2 day event, was shortened to 1 day in 2018 due to adverse weather conditions.
USN RADM Hugh C. Haynsworth & stuck-up/uptight-looking entourage during a 1962 tour of MSFC.
This is what probably assured the good Admiral's admittance:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x95HEzzWP2o
Credit: Richard Carson
Seriously, what else could it’ve been...that commanding & charismatic ‘I’ve Got A Secret” stage presence three years prior...or his logistics experience, connections & clout?
;-)
A wonderful view, ca. 1961/62? of the Saturn V S-IC (first) stage, full-size ‘template’ mounted at one end of what I believe to be building 4705, at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). In the foreground is a “Y-Ring” for the S-IC bulkhead assembly, with a partial bulkhead visible to the far left. The arched bridge-like device allows technicians to work on the bulkhead without having to climb onto it, reducing the risk of damaging it. An F-1 engine mockup is visible behind it.
Early Saturn V tooling, fabrication and assembly methods/practices were tested, verified(?) and conducted at MSFC. Excellent reading pertaining to such, at:
history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/ch7.htm
The template in color, along with JFK:
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-KN-C23681...
The F-1...and JFK:
www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-KN-C23678...
Credit: JFK Library website
An early Saturn I first (S-I) stage during assembly at MSFC. Note the partial H-1 engine in the lower right foreground as well. No idea what engine is front and center. Note also the plethora of fans - Huntsville, AL, (possibly) summer...yeah buddy - hot, humid & stagnant...embrace the suck...
...while maintaining a break-neck pace, getting it right, zero-defect tolerance, be efficient & economical, stay safe and make this thing man-rated - remember, we MUST put a man on the moon (and return him safely), within 10 years...
OBVIOUSLY, I LOVE this sh!t, BIG TIME, BUT - and I may be/probably am, talking out my ass here; however:
The long hours - to most likely include countless weekends & holidays, the timelines/deadlines, relentless pressure, worry & stress - I'm certain shortened many a life and destroyed many a marriage/relationship - of some good, honorable & committed people.
The goal was met & mission accomplished - spectacularly - with the amazing advances, innovations and spin-offs that we are deriving benefit from even now, but the human cost/toll had to have been enormous.
Must continue to honor those folks and their mind boggling collective accomplishment by keeping the memory and flame alive.
On a slick high-gloss photo paper that has the feel of old-school camera film, but thicker. Real high-end ’presentation’ look to it.
PR pamphlet from Marshall Space Flight Center, shortly after Lunar Orbit Rendezvous was selected as the prime mode for Apollo.
Successful first test-firing of S-IC-1 (the first flight booster of the Saturn V launch vehicle - destined for Apollo 4), on 17 February 1966. The firing, lasting 40.7 seconds, met all main test objectives.
On 24 & 25 February, MSFC technicians continued captive-firing tests of the first stage Saturn V launch vehicle (S-IC-1). MSFC scheduled the 25 February static firing for 125 seconds but had to terminate it after 83.2 seconds, when a red-line observer received an incorrect reading from a faulty transducer. However, MSFC scientists determined that in this second static firing in two days all criteria for the second S-IC-1 static firing were met and that no additional static firings were required.
Above (with additional photos) paraphrased and extracted from:
history.nasa.gov/MHR-5/part-7.htm
Per Wikimedia:
"The S-IC Static Test Stand was designed and constructed with the strength of hundreds of tons of steel and cement, planted down to bedrock 40 feet below ground level, and was required to hold down the brute force of the 7,500,000-pound thrust. The structure was topped by a crane with a 135-foot boom. With the boom in the up position, the stand was given an overall height of 405 feet, placing it among the highest structures in Alabama at the time. When the Saturn V S-IC first stage was placed upright in the stand , the five F-1 engine nozzles pointed downward on a 1,900-ton, water-cooled deflector. To prevent melting damage, water was sprayed through small holes in the deflector at the rate 320,000 gallons per minute."
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release
After eight months of designing, building and testing, the middle school, high school and college and university teams launched their rockets as part of NASA Student Launch on Sunday, April 8. The rockets and their payloads are designed to fly to 1-mile in altitude before deploying recovery systems that brings them safely to the ground.
The 2019 Lunar Rover Challenge Competition was hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This annual event celebrated the 25th anniversary of what began as the Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. High school and College teams from the United States and foreign countries competed. The awards ceremony was held at the adjacent Marriott on Saturday evening.
Image credit: NASA/Fred Deaton
Rover Challenge awards news release