Confirmed: F-1 Rocket Engine Salvaged By Amazon's Bezos Is From Apollo 11

willith writes "The folks at Bezos Expeditions have confirmed that faintly visible serial numbers on one of the large engine components they lifted from three miles below the ocean's surface match the serial number of F-1 engine F-6044, which flew in the center position on Saturn V number SA-506 — Apollo 11. With the 44th anniversary of the first lunar landing coming up tomorrow, the confirmation comes at an auspicious time. The F-1 engine remains to this day the largest single-chamber liquid fueled engine ever produced — although NASA is considering using a newer uprated design designated as the F-1B to help boost future heavy-lift rockets into orbit."

unamed conservator

[jonnymacuser]

Who is this "intrepid conservator" who "kept digging for more evidence" and eventually found "Unit No 2044"??? Give the guy some recognition jeff!

Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

When my daughter was about 7, we took her to the Kennedy Space Center.

The look of joyous awe on her face when she came around the corner and looked up at the five F1s of the business end of the Saturn V there was timeless.

How 19 and 20 year olds keep the B-52 flying ...

[perpenso]

Yeah that personal knowledge is pretty important, as is the chain where one "generation" passes it on to the next. Not everything is in the blueprints or the manuals. That's the only reason 19 and 20 year old aviation mechanics in the US Air Force can keep a B-52 from the 1950s flying. Personal experience and tips passed on from a guy working on the B-52 since the 2000s, who received it from a guy who had worked on them in the 1990s, ... in the 80s, ... in the 70s, ... in the 60s, who got it from a USAF aviation mechanic from the 50s who worked side by side with the Boeing engineers and technicians who designed and built the B-52.

While NASA does not have the benefit of such a chain of knowledge regarding the Saturn 5 the young engineers at NASA and subcontractors are sometimes able to bring in retired engineers from the 60s and 70s to pass on what they remember.