science & techWikipedia1967 · Cape Kennedy, Florida, USA
The first Saturn V flew unmanned in 1967 and shook its viewers' windows miles away
On 9 November 1967, NASA launched Apollo 4 from Florida, the first flight of the Saturn V, the most powerful rocket that had ever flown. No crew was aboard. The mission tested the entire stack for the first time, including the stages, the Apollo command module and the restart of the third stage in orbit, which a lunar flight would need. After raising the spacecraft to a high orbit, the module re-entered at roughly lunar-return speed to test its heat shield. The test flew almost perfectly and gave NASA confidence to fly crewed missions on the Saturn V. The launch was so loud that it shook buildings miles away, including the broadcast booth where reporters covered the event.
Apollo 4 was the 'all-up' test that helped NASA reach the Moon by the end of the decade: testing all stages together in one flight rather than one by one saved time and risk.
The Saturn V is still the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket to have flown successfully, with the 363-foot stack standing taller than the Statue of Liberty.
background
Apollo 4 (November 9, 1967), also known as SA-501, was the uncrewed first test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the rocket that eventually took astronauts to the Moon. The space vehicle was assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building, and was the first to be launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, ascending from Launch Complex 39, where facilities built especially for the Saturn V had been constructed.
Apollo 4 was an "all-up" test, meaning all rocket stages and spacecraft were fully functional on the initial flight, a first for NASA. It was the first time the S-IC first stage and S-II second stage flew. It also demonstrated the S-IVB third stage's first in-flight restart. The mission used a Block I command and service module modified to test several key Block II revisions, including its heat shield at simulated lunar-return velocity and angle.
From Wikipedia: Apollo 4 (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0
Image: Wikimedia Commons
