Monday, April 15, 2013

Monstrous F-1 "Moon Rocket" Engine Back to Life

The combination of 5 F-1 rocket engines on NASA's Saturn 5 first stage booster had a power output of 60 gigawatts.  That is enough power to lift a good sized battleship off the ground.  And this was 1960s technology.  Engineers at Huntsville's Marshall Spaceflight Center have been dissecting a surviving F-1 to learn how to build a new version.  Luckily, a flight ready version was found in storage, which was icing on the proverbial space cake.  This is really worth a read.

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