4 ms·
The first flight of the Saturn V was 'all up'. Every stage was the real live thing. No dummy stages, real payload. The third flight of the Saturn V took 3 astr
by cratermoon 11mo ago
The first flight of the Saturn V was 'all up'. Every stage was the real live thing. No dummy stages, real payload.
The third flight of the Saturn V took 3 astronauts in their spacecraft to lunar orbit and back.
https://appel.nasa.gov/2010/02/25/ao_1-7_f_snapshot-html/ https://appel.nasa.gov/2010/02/25/ao_1-7_f_snapshot-html/
- timschmidt 11mo agoThat's true, but there were several prior rockets in the Saturn family which were used to test various parts of the design and mission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(rocket_family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(rocket_family)
- hvb2 11mo agoAnd no one would be ok today with the risks taken in those launches. Human spaceflight is more about mitigating risk than anything. Apollo was getting there first, so there was a willingness to take more risks. Also, NASA at the time had a humongous budget compared to today, adjusted for inflation [1] and it was a lot more focused on just getting to the moon. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA