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Space Science

Saturn V Preservation Efforts 215

Posted by Hemos from the update-here-in-the-now dept.
PizzaFace writes "Saturn V: The rocket that took man to the moon remains a totem of its time and a magnificent memento of youthful superpower. Yet Slashdot reported a year ago on the neglect suffered by the Saturn V rockets that were not launched into space. Some progress is being made toward preserving these awesome vehicles. The Kennedy Space Center has already brought its Saturn in from the rain; Houston and Huntsville are putting shelters up this year and working on funding for restoration and more permanent indoor exhibits. These gigantic masterpieces of 20th century engineering deserve a visit - maybe a pilgrimage."
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Saturn V Preservation Efforts More

Saturn V Preservation Efforts

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  • Private Funding? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by stupidfoo ( 836212 )
    Since i really don't feel like registering for a WashPo account, does the article mention what type of funding they've been using?

    Seems like it would be good for a company to donate money to help store these things. The Pepsi Saturn V storage facility, or something along those lines.

  • Saturns (Score:4, Informative)

    by ralphart ( 70342 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:37AM (#11309730)
    The Saturns are absolutely incredible. Currently they are (have been) out in the open along with several other rockets, including Redstone and others from the early days of NASA. Several engines are also outside where one can walk around them. It was after a pilgrimage there that my now 13 year old announced that he wanted to become an aerospace engineer.

    To those making the pilgrimage, a trip to Space Center, adjacent to the Johnson Space Center complex is also an absolute must do, especially if you have offspring.

    • Re:Saturns (Score:5, Informative)

      by pbranes ( 565105 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:40AM (#11309757)
      I was at Kennedy Space Center 2 weeks ago. Truly the saturn V is a marvel of modern engineering. The tour guide gave lots of information that I already knew, yet the people that were with me said, "Wow, this is really cool! How come they don't teach any of this stuff in school? How come we aren't still using this stuff?" I tried to explain how we have been sidetracked for 25 years by the space shuttle and how, hopefully, we will be using something similar, yet even greater, than this wonderful Saturn V again in the future. Most of the tour at KSC is overrated, but the drive around the vehicle assembly building, the tour of the saturn V rocket, and the "rocket garden" full of old gemini and mercury redstone rockets make the high price of admission worth it.

      • Re:Saturns (Score:3, Insightful)

        by justins ( 80659 )
        "Wow, this is really cool! How come they don't teach any of this stuff in school? How come we aren't still using this stuff?"

        "Why did you turn these amazing machines into lawn ornaments?" might have been a good question to ask. I've never understood the politics of that.
    • I also suggest paying the extra money for the historical sites tour in ADDITION to the big bus tour.

      They take you in a smaller bus with a more knowledgeable guide to the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury pads as well as some of the Air Force facilities.
    • The Saturns are absolutely incredible.

      The Vehicle Assembly Building is a sight too. I took the standard tour, and as the bus approached the building, the scale played tricks on my mind. I saw what looked like an ordinary cubish building not far ahead, and I figured we'd get there in half a minute. But the bus kept going, and going, and the building got bigger and bigger. The thing is freakin' huge! It was built to hold 4 Saturns fully assembled. The U.N. building could fit through each of its 4 doo

    • Re:Saturns (Score:3, Insightful)

      by DoraLives ( 622001 )
      The Saturns are absolutely incredible.

      Absolutely right!

      But lordygawdamighty, you shouldda seen them babies FLY!

    • Space Center Houston is nothing compared to the raw experience that you used to be able to get. However, it's still worth a trip. IMO, though, so is a pilgrimage to Cape Canavaral.
    • Okay, call me a nitpicker but here's as good a place as any to ask people to use the word properly. I'm speaking of one of the most frequently improperly used words in colloquial English, "pilgrimmage." A pilgrimmage is a religious event with roots in '. . . wandering away from your home . . .' It's not the location you go to, its the trek that makes a pilgrimmage a religious event. Since visiting the Saturn V is not about the trek, but about the object of devotion, pilgrimmage is just plain the wrong word.
    • Go see them if you ever get the chance!

      I saw the one in Houston last year. In one of those very fortunate coincidences, just as I had walked from the top to the engines, and was wondering about the function of various features of the engines, a friend of mine who happens to work as an aerospace engineer called my cell phone. I had a great little mini-tour, "asking what about this thing?", and hearing about what it was and why it worked -- and some of it was just astonishing -- the critical pressures, for
    • Here is a fascinating article [nuclearspace.com] describing a design for a heavy lift rocket based on the SaturnV form factor, but using a Gas Core Nuclear Reactor engine. Non-polluting and completely reusable, it would lift 1000 tons of cargo into orbit -- enough to take up a space hotel in one go -- and return with an equal amount of cargo to a powered landing. Compare that to the shuttle's 30-ton capacity. Interesting reading, even if you have a nuclear=evil filter. It would be cool to see those beautiful behemoths flying

  • Awesome (Score:3, Informative)

    by Dethboy ( 136650 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:38AM (#11309735) Homepage
    We visited a few years ago and it's great to see it inside. An awesome display. If you are inspired by things mechanical and have never visited - go!

  • Size matters (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FTL ( 112112 ) * <slashdotNO@SPAMneil.fraser.name> on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:39AM (#11309749) Homepage
    I visited the Saturn V in 1991 and took a series of panoramic photos [fraser.name].

    What strikes most people who stand next to it is how *big* it is. Yes it is big on the scale of a human. Maybe I'm weird, but what struck me was how *small* it is. It can go to the Moon and come back, yet it's smaller than a freight train.

    • Re:Size matters (Score:3, Insightful)

      by BaldGhoti ( 265981 )
      Maybe you see bigger freight trains than I do, but the Saturn rockets are HUGE. I've lived in Florida all my life, and I've been to Kennedy several times, and lying on their side, they're still freakishly tall. You look at the boosters from the Shuttle and then the boosters from the Saturn, and it's just amazing how huge these things are.

      It makes you wonder whatever happened to solving aerospace problems with brute force. :)

    • Re:Size matters (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kaszeta ( 322161 ) <rich@kaszeta.org> on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:16AM (#11310053) Homepage
      I visited the Saturn V in 1991 and took a series of panoramic photos. [fraser.name]

      If you look carefully, you can compare those photos to the ones I took in 2000 [kaszeta.org], and can see the increase in decay.

    • Re:Size matters (Score:2, Insightful)

      by sirenbrian ( 681407 )
      Sorry to be pedantic, but the Saturn V can not "go to the Moon and come back". It just shoves a few tons of payload out of Earth orbit. Most of the Saturn V ends up in the ocean. What actually went to the moon was the command module and lunar excursion module. All that came back to Earth was the command module. I think there was an incident a few years ago where the Space Shuttle, while on orbit, came quite close (in astronomical terms) to a spent third stage of a Saturn V.
      • OK, but to be even more pedantic, the LEM was renamed the Lunar Module well before one of them went to the Moon. Someone at NASA didn't like the word "excursion."

        Also, I believe the only SIII Stage ever in Earth orbit was Skylab. The third stage was responsible for TLI and ended up in a solar orbit or was crashed onto the lunar surface to help with lunar seismology.

    • Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, CA has an F-1 sitting in their parking lot. That baby by itself if fscking huge.

      Of course, now they're tearing down the building to expand a shopping mall (thank you so much Westfield). I hope they move the F-1 to the new Rocketdyne site.
  • With all this focus on keeping obsolete technology (shuttle) running, and preserving almost ancient technology (saturn), one is led to wonder if they really are as forward looking as they should be.

    Admittedly, preserving the Saturn is worthwhile, but how about you keep the general public excited about space by doing something new, instead of putting the past into prettier showcases?

    • While I see what you mean, unless we
      continue to put[ting] the past into prettier showcases, there will be nothing to remember it by, and nothing to enthuse people in the future apart from photographs and fallible memories.

      Steve

  • Saturn V is good but we can build bigger (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ravenspear ( 756059 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:45AM (#11309797)
    NASA had several designs that were larger than the Saturn V that never made it into production. Most of them were called Nova something or other. One of them used 8 F1 motors in the first stage (compared to 5 for the Saturn V).
    • One of them used 8 F1 motors in the first stage

      How do these compare with the Estes D motors I use?

    • Re:Saturn V is good but we can build bigger (Score:4, Informative)

      by ausoleil ( 322752 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:14AM (#11310027) Homepage
      Convair/Ehricke Nova design using standard tank/engine modules of 4.9 m diameter in both first and second stages; 4 F-1 engine/modules in first stage, 4 J-2 engine/modules in second stage. LEO Payload: 68,000 kg. to: 556 km Orbit. Payload: 27,000 kg. to a: escape trajectory. Liftoff Thrust: 2,721,480 kgf. Liftoff Thrust: 26,688.60 kN. Total Mass: 1,866,600 kg. Core Diameter: 9.80 m. Total Length: 78.00 m.


      Nova -A Specifications.



      he Nova was to be our Manned Mars exploration lifting body. It would be powerful enough to lift the "landing party" and ALL of their supporting equipment, out of the Terrestrial gravity well. One must remember that at this point in time, rockets were blowing up with apalling frequency on or near the launch site, so designing these spacecraft took an incredible leap of faith. In most cases, these designs are based on then-existing technologies, such as the F-1 liquid-fueled rocket engine, or the J-2 second stage liquid fueled rocket engine. Some avant guarde technology was envisioned, though - note solid-rocket boosters on some of the larger NASA design variants of the Nova.

      Also notable is the presence of several nuclear powered rockets. Nuclear power for rocket design was abandoned because it was felt that technology would not support the development of such a craft until certain base technologies became viable. The primary technology necessary was related to the development of a safe containment capability that would house the nuclear reactor and requisite material, and keep it safe from ANY damage imaginable - and some of the unimaginable ! Such technology is still beyond our capabilities.

      Note the Aerospike design at the very bottom image - Martin Marietta Advanced Designs - anotated R10R-2, with 424 K thrust. The aerospike is a timeless design that gets dusted off and retried every time the technologies are deemed to have advanced sufficiently far enough. Does it look familiar ? Like the inlet to a high-speed jet engine (ala SR-71) ? The aerospike had its contibutions to both technologies !
      Nova - Project Overview [fortunecity.com]

  • Keep your eye on the ball, here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CompressedAir ( 682597 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:48AM (#11309821)
    As one of the many thousand people who work at Johnson Space Center, I have watched them enclose our Saturn V over the past few months. All of us are quite appalled.

    Where I once came to work next to a giant reminder of NASA's past accomplishments (or rather, left for lunch by it, as I usually come in via the back gate), now I only see a big, white, ugly building. Where once tourists could stand back in awe as they took in the rocket's size, now they have to peer through windows at it.

    A permanent building housing our Saturn V will surely protect it better from the elements... but it wrecks the whole reason for having it there in the first place.

    A better preservation program would have three steps:

    1. Commit the money needed to re-paint it once every 10 years.

    2. Inspect it once a year for structural problems; repair those as they arise.

    3. Do something worth doing and go someplace worth going, so that our most impressive accomplishment is not a 30 year old rocket.
    • I agree with the OP. I've lived in and around Clear Lake for as long as I've been breathing, and the near-daily sight of that Saturn V is as much a part of my life as blue sky and sunshine.

      I'm glad they're taking efforts to keep it up--for a while it was in pretty bad shape, with visible mold and cracks running down the paint--but it should be on display, in the open. It's the first thing you notice as you drive past the Johnson Space Center, and it never fails to draw a gasp from any out-of-town guests
    • I agree 250%.

      I absolutely hate the horrendous structure they've erected around the rocket.

      For those who haven't seen it, the thing looks like a massive white corrugated metal shed. Tiny little windows, no features, just a huge white cheap looking building.

      I hope to God that this is temporary while they fix it up. I heard they needed to dry it out before working on it, so I'm hoping this was just a quick way to enclose it.

      I hate how it looks. It's terrible.

    • Agreed the Saturn V would be most impressive as an outdoor exhibit.

      However, Florida is not an ideal location, especially not the Florida coast. The salt air, combined with high tempatures and humidity, make for a very corrosive environment. The time and effort required to properly maintain a metal structure as large as the Saturn V would quickly exceed the investment KSC made enclosing the rocket in a building where humidity and temperature can be controlled.

      A much better location for an outdoor exhib

      • The Saturn V in Florida is already enclosed.

        They were talking about the one in Houston, at Johnson Space Center.


    • Where I once came to work next to a giant reminder of NASA's past accomplishments (or rather, left for lunch by it, as I usually come in via the back gate), now I only see a big, white, ugly building. Where once tourists could stand back in awe as they took in the rocket's size, now they have to peer through windows at it.

      I agree - and so have all my coworkers who have commented on Rocket Park. The only savings grace is that I've heard the building being referred to as "temporary". So one can only

  • ... will they also include in the exhibit the Hollywood studio where they shot the lunar landing?

  • What about the tech ? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MosesJones ( 55544 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @09:53AM (#11309852) Homepage
    Sure the rocket is impressive, the most powerful machine every created.

    But standing still its just a great big tube. Having seen the one at Kennedy, its just not that impressive as a static thing. When it was running then sure, what a beast.

    But what about the tech that REALLY got man to the moon. Saturn V is just a big WWII rocket, the thing that made the difference was the IBM computing "power" that directed the thing.

    I'd love to see the old mission control re-built with the original style technology, and simulate the information going into it. Imagine a school trip where you had to solve the same problem as for Apollo 13, or making the error over-ride decision of Apollo 11.

    It wouldn't even really matter if it was just running on one PC behind the scene as long as you got the experience of how limited the power was.

    Firing a rocket is grease monkey impressive. Getting it to hit the moon is the achievement.
    • Don't forget the thousands of engineers and technicians in the ground crew that made it all happen for every launch. Plus all the people in the global spaceflight tracking networks and at JSC.

    • Saturn's stages (Score:3, Informative)

      by amightywind ( 691887 )

      But what about the tech that REALLY got man to the moon. Saturn V is just a big WWII rocket, the thing that made the difference was the IBM computing "power" that directed the thing.

      You might say the the monster SIC stage was of WWII vintage, though the F1 engines were gigantic and employed innovative turbomachinery and cooling. It was designed by Von Braun's V2 team. The SII and SIVB H2/O2 stages were truly revolutionary. They are the main reason why the Saturn V had such a huge payload mass fractio

    • Saturn V is just a big WWII rocket

      No, the Redstone used early in the Mercury program was just a big WW2 rocket. The multistage Saturn V is a very different animal

  • No. They Don't (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Saturn V rockets deserved to be launched into space, not converted to lawn ornaments to become luxury housing for gnomes.

    bkd
  • Germans, they were such bastards, but they made such bloody good rockets....

  • Sad comments on our society... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anita Coney ( 648748 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:02AM (#11309916) Homepage
    First, the things we build can barely last a few decades without being destroyed by something as simple as weather.

    Second, we're so short sited that we cannot see the value protecting our own history.

    • Re:Sad comments on our society... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Waffle Iron ( 339739 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:39AM (#11310225)
      First, the things we build can barely last a few decades without being destroyed by something as simple as weather.

      That's just because NASA failed to order the correct equipment for the mission. These Saturn Vs are the standard spaceflight edition made out of flimsy aluminum sheets.

      For archival applications, they really should have ordered the special National Monument Edition Saturn V model. These are constructed entirely out of inch-thick solid bronze, and are designed to withstand centuries of exposure to the elements.

      • It's a rare treat to see sarcasm so skillfully and appropriately applied, at least on Slashdot ;) Nicely done.
      • "First, the things we build can barely last a few decades without being destroyed by something as simple as weather."

        That's just because NASA failed to order the correct equipment for the mission. These Saturn Vs are the standard spaceflight edition made out of flimsy aluminum sheets.

        For archival applications, they really should have ordered the special National Monument Edition Saturn V model. These are constructed entirely out of inch-thick solid bronze, and are designed to withstand centuries of expo

        • hehe, and there's no weather where those things were made to go. Really, from the vehicle assembly building to sit maybe some weeks at most on launch pad, those things didn't have to take too much weather exposure.
    • As for construction quality ... those were big controlled bombs designed to launch objects into space. Not ornaments. Their job was to get a payload into space without destroying it or killing anybody, not to sit on the grass looking pretty.

      I do take your point about the preservation of historical objects, though. OTOH, they're stepping up to it now... and diverting funds that could be used to do /new/ interesting things, I might add.

  • Photos of the Kennedy Exhibit (Score:4, Informative)

    by ausoleil ( 322752 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:06AM (#11309951) Homepage
    KSC Saturn V Exhibit [ausoleil.org]

    Here's some inglorious snaps of the Kennedy Space Center preservation of the Saturn V that I did back in the "bad old days" of using only a 3MP digital.

    To say the least, it is an awesome job that they did. In Huntsville, there are two Saturn V's, albeit one erect, the other on it's side. Both are outside. I have photos of those too, and will put them on my site tonight. Check back if you are interested.

    • I think one of the Huntsville Saturn Vs - the vertical one - is a dummy. They also have a dummy shuttle which had been used as a boilerplate to practise moving and loading the real thing, so the dummy Saturn might have been a boilerplate for something. The horizontal Saturn V is kind of run down, with a hornets nest inside the (boilerplate) command module.

      Incidentally, Huntsville has a better rocket garden than Johnson and Kennedy put together. The only other place with stuff as interesting is at White San
      • You're right, and they have a Mir trainer or mock-up inside that's quite cool.

        Another great space stop is the Smithsonian. Last time I saw some of the stuff there, it was on leaving the pad down at KSC. That and the 1903 Flyer make the trip to DC worth the time and money.
  • All dominant civilizations do have a history of worshipping phalluses.

  • Two Saturn V's in Huntsville area ... (Score:3, Informative)

    by nixdorf_ ( 161552 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:14AM (#11310035)
    Just a note from a Huntsvillian: there are actually two Saturn V's on display in the Huntsville area. The one getting the big bucks for restoration is within Huntsville city limits on the grounds of the US Space and Rocket Center.

    The other is actually at a state-owned rest stop on I-65, 20 or so miles north-west (as the crow flies) of Huntsville. It's at the welcome-center when crossing the Alabama/Tennessee border.

    While the rocket on display at the USSRC may need restoration, the one at the rest-stop is in awful shape. Too bad the state is too cash-scrapped to even think about touching that one.

    • The other is actually at a state-owned rest stop on I-65, 20 or so miles north-west (as the crow flies) of Huntsville. It's at the welcome-center when crossing the Alabama/Tennessee border.

      Because nothing says 'Deep South' like NASA technology...

      :-)
    • Just a note from another Huntsvillian - the one at the rest stop is actually a Saturn 1B. Another Saturn 1B is upright at the USSRC, and the real Saturn V there is on its side. The Saturn V at USSRC that's "standing up" is a total fake and boondoggle to boot - $15 million in bond money to build, pork passed behind the Alabama State government's back. The fake one standing up costs over 25 times what they want to restore the real one on its side. Absolutely crazy.

  • Nice timing... (Score:4, Informative)

    by MrPerfekt ( 414248 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:17AM (#11310058) Homepage Journal
    Oddly enough as I sit here and read this, I am in my Florida hotel. I just visited the KSC yesterday. I must say there facility for the Saturn V is impressive.

    After being treated to a movie and a simulated launch on the real (not mock) Launch Control hardware, you get to walk through the door and take in this enormous machine. I must say, the craft is pristine. Aside from a tiny bit of rust on the Escape Tower, the paint and metal body is perfect. A big piece of history preserved the way it should be.

    I would assume that future plans for the other Saturn Vs would be similar though I don't know the difference in annual visitors between the other two centers and if it would be worth it to do such a grandiose thing for 2 more of them.

    Perhaps they could just truck the other 2 to Florida and expand the exhibit? ;)

    Anyway, I just want to say, if you're a geek on vacation in Florida, Kennedy Space Center is pretty killer and a must-see.

  • Naysayers (Score:5, Informative)

    by tspauld98 ( 512650 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:20AM (#11310082)
    For all those people who are thinking or posted, "what's the big deal?" or "The rocket is just a big tube with chemical propellent." Think again. I used to be one of these people.

    Since I have children, pilgrimages to the Orlando area once every couple of years has become requisite because of a certain multi-national entertainment conglomerate that happens to be very good at marketing to children. On a recent trip, I insisted that we all go to the Kennedy Space Center for a visit while we were there. Everybody was not too enthusastic about losing an entire day at the theme parks to drive an hour and a half to the coast just to see a "bigger airport".

    Once we got there, it was amazing how people's opinions changed, but the biggest hit of the day was the multimedia presentation and tour of the indoor Saturn V rocket. I was skeptical myself as to how entertaining this portion of the visit would be, but it was by-far the best part of the KSC tour. The way they have this thing mounted allows you to walk under the rocket. Also, at each of the separation joints, they separated the components so you can see the machinery and technology that made the rocket work. It was like walking into the garage where they keep one of the baddest vehicles know to man and someone opens the hood for your inspection.

    I highly recommend the bus tour of the Kennedy Space Center if you are remotely close to it. It is one of the best ways to gain insight of how those things actually flew. (Not to mention all the other cool things you'll see like the Shuttle Launch Facillity and the ISS Fabrication Facillity.) As far as preservation of the other Saturn Vs, if they are trying to build something similar to what is in KSC, then I'm all for it.

  • One-off remnants (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Kasar ( 838340 )
    The last documentary I saw mentioned that the designs for them were destroyed as part of some deal in building the shuttle. In other words, NASA currently has no launch vehicles powerful enough to even send people to the moon, forget all the talk about Mars. Shuttles: Just say no to vehicle recycling.

    • Re:One-off remnants (Score:4, Informative)

      by timster ( 32400 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @11:36AM (#11310693)
      Not exactly. NASA says that the designs are still around and archived, but that they are basically useless. The Saturn V is made of a huge number of parts, and the majority of them are simply not made anymore. Although some of those parts are obviously custom-built anyway, many are not, and it would take a huge investment to recreate that 60's-era industrial infrastructure. We would be better off designing a new, modern rocket than trying to recreate a Saturn V.

  • Fresno State (Score:3, Interesting)

    by John Whorfin ( 19968 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @10:44AM (#11310266) Homepage
    My alma mater, California State University, Fresno, had was was supposed to be a Saturn V motor out in front of one of it's buildings. By the time I was there in 1990-1994 it was hidden in the midst of some low-traffic buildings.

    Supposedly it was moved because it looked too much like a missile engine and missiles are for war, and that's bad.

    I remember taking my girlfriend at the time who was a reporter for the campus newspaper to go see it. She had no idea it was even there. Yeah, she dug it -- shows that geeks really can attract girls :)

    It was in pretty bad shape out in the elements at all, but it was impressive. I often wonder if it's still there a decade later, or if the weeds have clamed it.
    • Boeing (nee Rockwell) Rocketdyne in Canoga Park has an F-1 engine in front. At least until the wreck the building for a shopping mall.
  • As I once lived about 30 miles from Hunstville, my family had memberships to the museum and made frequent trips. The exhibits are extraordinary, but a simple fac`t jumped out at me late in my time in the area.

    In addition to the Saturn V's (which still capture my imagination) a Space Shuttle from the early days was on site (not space worthy.) At the time, NASA was so underfunded that they actually took away parts of (and perhaps the entire) booster rocket from the shuttle exhibit. It seems that NASA had
    • If we are forced to put display items back into service, just what does that say about our space program? In retrospect, climbing on the Columbia was sheer insanity. This was an accident waiting to happen.

      To their credit, they probably didn't just run it through the car wash and send it straight to the launch pad. Most of the shuttles have/had been stripped down to the frame and totally refitted more than once. Columbia, for example, had just recently come off such a total refurbishment when it disintegra

  • What it Takes (Score:3, Informative)

    by IronTek ( 153138 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @12:36PM (#11311267)
    If you want to get a better idea of what it takes to restore a mighty Saturn V, I have on my website an article from the December 1996/ January 1997 issue of Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine an article that details the efforts involved in restoring the one in Florida.

    The same company is being tapped for the Huntsville Saturn V and I would imagine the one in Texas, also.

    The Google cache of the first page (my poor little website can't afford a Slashdotting) can be found here [64.233.161.104] and the second page will load from my site, but at least I've cut my load in half.

    People should read this.

    And after you do, feel free to make a donation to help save [spacecamp.com] the Saturn V Werner von Braun left the U.S. Space & Rocket Center

  • Ah, the ye olde Saturn V (Score:3, Interesting)

    by thephotoman ( 791574 ) on Monday January 10, 2005 @01:54PM (#11312167) Journal
    I know that thing...I practically grew up in the shadows of the one at the Johnson Space Center. I've also seen the one that they put indoors at the Kennedy Space Center. Those things are impressive.

    That said, I know the dilapadated state that the one in Clear Lake (man, I'm giving away my location: most people don't know that Johnson is in Clear Lake, not Houston) is in, and I can imagine that the one in Huntsville isn't in much better shape. It's rather sad to see this magnificent device that could take three people to the moon and return them safely in such a state.

    I mean, I grew up imagining myself in the command module of that thing, on a revived moon mission (granted, they'd probably update some of the computer controls, but the general design philosophy would be exactly what one would need to make the return...wonder if the Chineese have thought about that). I'd love for my kids to be able to do the same thing, assuming that I make the decision to reproduce.

    Now, if only they'd re-open most of Johnson Space Center to the public. After Disney took over tourist management, it's really not the same there. I remember the coolness that was Building 2 on that campus. It used to be the visitor's center. I also remember being able to eat in the same cafeteria with the engineers and astronauts training for their next missions, being able to walk into the gallery in building 31A at will except during an hour window during launch, during which it was filled with press (that's Mission Control for those not in the know), and just watching the ground control while they were doing their jobs. It was quite amazing, honestly. As a young child, it fueled my imagination more than what the current setup can do.

  • The Mighty Saturn V (Score:2, Interesting)

    by HedRat ( 613308 )
    When I worked for Intergraph in the 80's, they threw a big employee party and flew all of us into Huntsville. The party was at the Space and Rocket Center where Alan Shepard gave a keynote and we all got to meet him and Wally Schirra closeup. We had the run of the place and the most breathtaking exhibit was the Saturn V. They had the telemetry ring inside the building so you could get really close and see all the detail. It was amazing. Another lasting memory was taking the bus to see the Saturn V engi
  • I agree with the original poster, seeing the Saturn V up close, in person, was the best thing I've ever done. I was in Florida for a couple weeks back in 1996, and on a whim, we took off from our hotel near Orlando and all the attractions there (got tired of waiting in lines) and headed off to KSC. The visitor areas were laid out and set up very nicely. The shuttle display was awesome. The memorial to all the people lost in various accidents was heartwrenching, especially after having witnessed the Chal

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