Saturn V - The Moon Rocket

Despite an earlier string of space-race failures, the United States developed a rocket with enough power to send people to the moon.  Led by Wernher von Braun (who had previously helped to develop Germany’s V2 flying bomb), America created the mighty Saturn V (a powerful three-stage rocket, taller than a 36-story building).

This clip contains rarely seen historical footage of Saturn V’s development.  The design and production team encountered, among other things, combustion instability in the F-1 engine.

The problem (as seen in this video clip) resulted from the way fuel was injected into the combustion chamber.  A team of engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center (in Huntsville, Alabama), led by Sonny Morea (the project manager who also later developed a roving lunar vehicle), figured-out the solution. 

To learn more about the F-1 issues (and how they were solved), see Stages to Saturn, by Roger E. Bilstein, beginning at page 107.

Credits

From “Race for the Moon,” episode four of Space Race (a BBC documentary/drama produced in cooperation with British, German, Russian and American teams).