How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 “moon rocket” engine back to life

[Subdeacon Joe]

Heck of a story. The story of young engineers who resurrected an engine nearly twice their age.

 

Despite the stunning success of the Saturn V, NASA's direction shifted after Project Apollo's conclusion; the Space Transport System—the

Space Shuttle and its associated hardware—was instead designed with

wildly different engines. For thirty years, NASA's astronaut corps rode

into orbit aboard Space Shuttles powered by RS-25 liquid hydrogen-powered engines and solid-propellant boosters. With the Shuttle's discontinuation, NASA is currently hitching space rides with the Russians.

But there's a chance that in the near future, a giant rocket powered

by updated F-1 engines might once again thunder into the sky. And it's

due in no small part to a group of young and talented NASA engineers in

Huntsville, Alabama, who wanted to learn from the past by taking

priceless museum relics apart... and setting them on fire.

[Badlands Beady]

If you want to be truly gobsmacked, be sure and visit the Saturn V exhibit at Kennedy Space Center. You take the (free) bus to the exhibit and are ushered into a mockup of the launch control room, where you go through a simulated launch from the point of view of the launch control team. As the Saturn V "launches" (unseen, supposedly a couple of miles away), a godawful rumble threatens to shake the wndows out of their frames. When this is over, you pass through a couple of doors and come face-to-face with an actual Saturn V (left over from one of the flights that were cut from the program) lying on its side. It's pointed directly away from you, so the first thing you see are the five F-1 engines mounted at the base. The diameter of the base reaches maybe 50 feet above you(it's been a few years since my last visit, so I can't be sure), and the engines are mounted symmetrically. You get a feeling of massiveness that you don't get from rockets that are standing up. And boy, do you feel small! I used to be heavily into the Apollo program in a past hobby, and walking through those doors is a thrill every time.

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

I helped build the S II (second stage of the Saturn V) back in the 60's. (Also worked on the Shuttle too).

[Bama Red]

I also worked on the S II during a summer job for Brown Engineering, on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, back in '66 or '67. Fascinating work.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

Wonder if I could drop one of them in my F100 to replace the 4.9 straight 6?

[Subdeacon Joe]

Wonder if I could drop one of them in my F100 to replace the 4.9 straight 6?

 

I think it's way bigger that an F-100 , Charlie.

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

Definately wouldn't fit under the hood, and, wouldn't fit the bed either

 

Probably crush the truck

[Doc Flimshaw Sass# 73310]

If you want to see one and you're in the los angeles area, there is one at rocketdyne on canoga blvd and victory blvd in woodland hills

http://photos.wikimapia.org/p/00/00/64/45/75_big.jpg