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> But Saturn V's purpose was not getting things to orbit. The way rocket staging works - each stage delivers the next stage to a predefined orbit / trajectory
by gridspy 2y ago
> But Saturn V's purpose was not getting things to orbit.
The way rocket staging works - each stage delivers the next stage to a predefined orbit / trajectory or energy level. It is not Saturn V that went to the moon, it just lofted a payload (final stage) into orbit that could perform a TLI.
This was the final stage of the Saturn V rocket for TLI (123,000 kg):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IVB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IVB
In orbit refuelling with StarShip is a major innovation, meaning that we don't need to separate payloads into parts and assemble them on orbit. Instead we can refuel a reusable boost stage.