The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC),located in Redstone Arsenal,Alabama,is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center,MSFC's first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo program. Marshall has been the lead center for the Space Shuttle main propulsion and external tank;payloads and related crew training;International Space Station (ISS) design and assembly;computers,networks,and information management;and the Space Launch System. Located on the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville,MSFC is named in honor of General of the Army George C. Marshall.
The S-IVB was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company,it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice:first for Earth orbit insertion after second stage cutoff,and then for translunar injection (TLI).
Saturn-Apollo 3 (SA-3) was the third flight of the Saturn I launch vehicle,the second flight of Project Highwater,and part of the American Apollo program. The rocket was launched on November 16,1962,from Cape Canaveral,Florida.
The Constellation program was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA,the space agency of the United States,from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a "return to the Moon no later than 2020" with a crewed flight to the planet Mars as the ultimate goal. The program's logo reflected the three stages of the program:the Earth (ISS),the Moon,and finally Mars—while the Mars goal also found expression in the name given to the program's booster rockets:Ares. The technological aims of the program included the regaining of significant astronaut experience beyond low Earth orbit and the development of technologies necessary to enable sustained human presence on other planetary bodies.
The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to 20,000-pound (9,100 kg) low Earth orbit payloads. The rocket's first stage was built as a cluster of propellant tanks engineered from older rocket tank designs,leading critics to jokingly refer to it as "Cluster's Last Stand". Its development was taken over from the Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1958 by the newly formed civilian NASA. Its design proved sound and flexible. It was successful in initiating the development of liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket propulsion,launching the Pegasus satellites,and flight verification of the Apollo command and service module launch phase aerodynamics. Ten Saturn I rockets were flown before it was replaced by the heavy lift derivative Saturn IB,which used a larger,higher total impulse second stage and an improved guidance and control system. It also led the way to development of the super-heavy lift Saturn V which carried the first men to landings on the Moon in the Apollo program.
Nova was a series of NASA rocket designs that were proposed both before and after the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program. Nova was NASA's first large launcher proposed in 1958,for missions similar to what Saturn V was subsequently used for. The Nova and Saturn V designs closely mirrored each other in basic concept,power,size,and function. Differences were minor but practical,and the Saturn was ultimately selected for the Apollo program,largely because it would reuse existing facilities to a greater extent and could make it to the pad somewhat earlier.
The F-1,commonly known as Rocketdyne F-1,is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne. This engine uses a gas-generator cycle developed in the United States in the late 1950s and was used in the Saturn V rocket in the 1960s and early 1970s. Five F-1 engines were used in the S-IC first stage of each Saturn V,which served as the main launch vehicle of the Apollo program. The F-1 remains the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ever developed.
Ares I was the crew launch vehicle that was being developed by NASA as part of the Constellation program. The name "Ares" refers to the Greek deity Ares,who is identified with the Roman god Mars. Ares I was originally known as the "Crew Launch Vehicle" (CLV).
The Saturn II was a series of American expendable launch vehicles,studied by North American Aviation under a NASA contract in 1966,derived from the Saturn V rocket used for the Apollo lunar program. The intent of the study was to eliminate production of the Saturn IB,and create a lower-cost heavy launch vehicle based on Saturn V hardware. North American studied three versions with the S-IC first stage removed:the INT-17,a two-stage vehicle with a low Earth orbit payload capability of 47,000 pounds (21,000 kg);the INT-18,which added Titan UA1204 or UA1207 strap-on solid rocket boosters,with payloads ranging from 47,000 pounds (21,000 kg) to 146,400 pounds (66,400 kg);and the INT-19,using solid boosters derived from the Minuteman missile first stage.
The Saturn MLV was a proposed concept family of rockets,intended as a follow-on to the Saturn V. MLV stands for "Modified Launch Vehicle".
The Saturn V-ELV was to be an enlarged Saturn V with the addition of four Titan UA1207 solid rocket boosters derived from the Titan IV launch vehicle and liquid propellant stages derived from the conceptual Saturn MLV-V-4(S)-A* and MLV-V-1A. Had it been built it would have been able to put a 200,000 kg payload into low Earth orbit or a 67,000 kg payload into a translunar trajectory. The ELV was intended to serve as part of a manned NASA mission to Mars,though that idea eventually fell out of favor largely due to political and financial concerns. A Mars mission would have used a total of 10 ELV's - 6 for the space vehicle and 4 for the logistics vehicles. In addition to Mars,the ELV was intended to serve as a platform for unmanned exploratory missions to Venus.
The Saturn C-2 was the second rocket in the Saturn C series studied from 1959 to 1962. The design was for a four-stage launch vehicle that could launch 21,500 kg (47,300 lb) to low Earth orbit and send 6,800 kg (14,900 lb) to the Moon via Trans-Lunar Injection.
The C-2 design concept was for a proposed crewed circumlunar flight and the Earth orbit rendezvous (EOR) missions. It was initially considered for the Apollo lunar landing at the earliest possible date (1967).
The Saturn C-3 was the third rocket in the Saturn C series studied from 1959 to 1962. The design was for a three-stage launch vehicle that could launch 45,000 kilograms (99,000 lb) to low Earth orbit and send 18,000 kilograms (40,000 lb) to the Moon via trans-lunar injection.
Jarvis was a proposed American medium-lift launch vehicle for space launch,designed by Hughes Aircraft and Boeing during the mid-1980s as part of the joint United States Air Force (USAF)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced Launch System (ALS) study. Intended to utilize engines and tooling in storage from the Saturn V rocket program along with Space Shuttle components,and projected to be capable of carrying up to six satellites into multiple orbits using a single launch,the proposal failed to meet the ALS requirements,and the Jarvis rocket was never built.
Studied by Marshall Space Flight Center in 1968,the Saturn V-Centaur booster would have been used for deep space missions if it had flown. It consisted of an ordinary Saturn V launch vehicle,except that the Apollo spacecraft would be replaced with a Centaur upper stage,as a high-energy liquid-fueled fourth stage,which would provide a 30% performance improvement over Saturn V-A/Saturn INT-20. This combination never flew.
The Saturn V dynamic test vehicle,designated SA-500D,is a prototype Saturn V rocket used by NASA to test the performance of the rocket when vibrated to simulate the shaking which subsequent rockets would experience during launch. It was the first full-scale Saturn V completed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Though SA-500D never flew,it was instrumental in the development of the Saturn V rocket which propelled the first men to the Moon as part of the Apollo program. Built under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun,it served as the test vehicle for all of the Saturn support facilities at MSFC.
The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated,had three stages,and was powered with liquid fuel. Flown from 1967 to 1973,it was used for nine crewed flights to the Moon,and to launch Skylab,the first American space station.
A super heavy-lift launch vehicle is a rocket that can lift to low Earth orbit a "super heavy payload",which is defined as more than 50 metric tons (110,000 lb) by the United States and as more than 100 metric tons (220,000 lb) by Russia. It is the most capable launch vehicle classification by mass to orbit,exceeding that of the heavy-lift launch vehicle classification.
During the lifetime of the Space Shuttle,Rockwell International and many other organizations studied various Space Shuttle designs. These involved different ways of increasing cargo and crew capacity,as well as investigating further reusability. A large focus of these designs were related to developing new shuttle boosters and improvements to the central tank,but also looked to expand NASA's ability to launch deep space missions and build modular space stations. Many of these concepts and studies would shape the concepts and programs of the 2000s such as the Constellation,Orbital Space Plane Program,and Artemis program.
First Lunar Outpost was a proposal for a crewed lunar mission that would have launched sometime in the 2010s. It was part of George H. W. Bush's Space Exploration Initiative. The main purpose of the proposal was to offer a much cheaper alternative to NASA's 90-day study from 1989 by a factor of US$30 billion. Although it did not gather much mainstream attention,NASA dedicated much time to assembling a very detailed and thorough proposal. However,the entire Space Exploration Initiative was cancelled soon after the proposal's completion,and NASA had to close the Office of Space Exploration in March 1993.
