Saturn

As microblogged live on my (other) Twitter account, @mmorabito67 on May 25, 2011:

1. At the BIS British Interplanetary Society in London for Alan Lawrie’s SaturnV presentation. live microblogging 6pm GMT
2. Title is “Saturn V Manufacturing and testing” – room packed
3. Special anniversary of Kennedy’s announcement of the Moon attempt in 1961
4. Lawrie has 30 years of space technology experience
5. Kennedy spoke at around 1.09pm EDT – Also 45th of first full rocket
6. Mastermind was Von Braun – developed in record time, new materials invented
7. Huntsville Al. was a small city when Von Braun went there in the 1950s –
8. Picture of Von Braun team member meeting Korolev’s daughter –
9. Saturn was a military concept for testing rockets at the start –
10. Pictures of Marshall Spaceflight Center test facilities –
11. RL10 h2 / o2 rocket test facility. Neosho rocket production facility in Missouri near Joplin –
12. Details of rocket. First stage S-1C by Boeing and MSF.
13. Welded tanks but bolted intertanks. Manufacturing details. Fairings around external engines blown after separation
14. Pictures of retrorockets firing – heroicrelics.org
15. S-1C firing test at MSF. Walt Disney visiting Huntsville
16. Picture of Saturn V in test stand
17. People measuring rocket’s vibrational modes by pushing it – same happened for Ares –
18. Stage built vertically but engines inserted horizontally –
19. First stage of Apollo 16 caught fire during tests. Engineers forced to look at the failed parts.
20. S-II second stage by NAA in California. Not kerosene but hydrogen. One tank with one bulkhead within
21. Testing at same Mississippi facility still used
22. Story of mistaken loading to explosion due to incorrect procedures
23. First stage o2 not insulated but second h2 had to be. Several attempts up to Apollo 13.
24. Third stage S-IV B similar to second stage but one engine.
25. Tanks hemispherical in 3rd ellipsoidal in 1st and 2nd
26. 2nd stage external insulation strong metal inside. 3rd stage insulation inside by tiles that didn’t fall off.
27. Picture of Skylab being built out of 3rd stage
28. Explosion in Jan 1967 of S-IVB-503 3rd stage one week before Apollo 1.- problem with Helium tanks
29. Problem with welding of He tanks.
30. Pictures comparing sites in 1967 and 2006 –
31. F-1 rocket engines – tested at Edwards
32. J-2 tested near Hollywood
33. Overview of Saturn V flights. Second flight not so well (Apollo 6) with 2 lost engines then Apollo 8
34. Apollo 8 – a major structural failuree in California a day earlier but launched anyway
35. Pictures of test firings of Apollo 11. Lightning striking Apollo 12. Apollo 17 3rd stage never test fired.
36. How did they make it so perfect? Leadership, mindset. Von Braun and other German managers
37. Many things worked by dodging bullets
38. Personally I would not be surprised the programme was stopped before a major accident would kill it and spaceflight

The lecture followed the publication of “Saturn” by Alan Lawrie with Robert Godwin.