Launch Vehicles, USA Saturn V rocket for the Apollo 12 mission on mobile launch platform,...

Launch Vehicles, USA Saturn V rocket for the Apollo 12 mission on mobile launch platform, 1969. The three-stage Saturn V was the largest rocket ever built. Each Saturn V contained 3 million separate parts, was over 100 metres tall, weighed some 3000 tonnes at launch and its first stage engines produced a thrust of 7.5 million pounds. It was developed after studies indicated that the Saturn I rockets were unfeasible for a lunar mission. The Saturn V had a 100 % launch success rate and was used on all the Apollo missions to the Moon. Prior to each mission, the massive rocket would be assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Using this mobile platform, it would then be moved to the launch pad itself, a distance of 3.5 or 5 miles, depending on which pad was to be used. ©SSPL/NASA