Abstract On 19 January 1959 NASA took over the Air Force’s contract with Rocketdyne for the development of the F-l kerosene-burning engine. The prototype was test fired on 10 February 1961. By sustaining 1.55 million pounds of thrust for several seconds, it broke the record for a single-chamber engine by a considerable margin. On 9 April 1961 it was announced that the engine had achieved 1.64 million pounds of thrust. On 26 May 1962 the engine was fired at full power for its intended operating time of 150 seconds. Meanwhile, Rocketdyne began the development of the 200,000-pound-thrust hydrogen-burning J-2 engine that was to power the upper stages of the Saturn launch vehicle. The first full-duration test of this engine was on 27 November 1963. The Douglas Aircraft Corporation fired an S-IVB stage utilising a single J-2 engine at full power for 10 seconds on a static rig at its Sacramento facility on 4 December 1964. But it was a ‘battleship’ variant (equivalent to a ‘boilerplate’ for a spacecraft) having tankage made of thick stainless steel instead of the lightweight aluminium of the operational vehicle. On 7 December 1964 the first S-IVB mockup — which was accurate in terms of mass, centre of gravity and structural stiffness, but with models of the engine and other systems — was delivered to the Marshall Space Flight Center for stress testing. On 16 April 1965 the first S-IC stage utilising five F-l engines was test fired for several seconds at NASA’s Mississippi Test Facility. On 24 April the S-II stage utilising five J-2 engines was test fired at Rocketdyne’s facility at Santa Susana in California. On 5 August the S-IC made a full-duration test during which it responded to steering commands provided by the blockhouse.
Apollo picks up the pace
2009-01-01
41 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
AMERICAS Colombian shake-up picks up pace
Online Contents | 2011
Rail-flaw detection picks up the pace
Online Contents | 1995
SPIE maintains stride; astrobiology picks up pace
British Library Online Contents | 1998
INDIA'S SPACE PROGRAM PICKS UP THE PACE
Online Contents | 1995
|India's Space Program Picks Up the Pace
British Library Online Contents | 1995
|