Launch Vehicles, USA Saturn V rocket, 1969

Launch Vehicles, USA Saturn V rocket, 1969. This aerial view shows a Saturn V rocket on its mobile launch platform being transported from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the launch site. This was a distance of 3.5 or 5 miles, depending on which launch pad was to be used. 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. ©SSPL/NASA