Saturn V was the most powerful rocket that
had ever fl own successfully and was used in
the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s. The
rocket was 363 ft. (111 m) tall and weighed 6.2
million lbs (2.8 million kilos) when fully fueled
for lifto . The Saturn V used for the later Apollo
missions had three stages. Each stage would
burn its engines until it was out of fuel and would
then separate from the rocket. The engines on
the next stage would fi re, and the rocket would
continue into space. The fi rst stage had the most
powerful engines, since it had the challenging
task of lifting the fully fueled rocket o the
ground. The fi rst stage lifted the rocket to an
altitude of about 42 miles (68 km). The second
stage carried it from there almost into orbit. The
third stage placed the Apollo spacecraft into
Earth orbit and pushed it toward the moon.
Saturn V
F-1 ENGINES (5)
J-2 ENGINES (5)
S-IC STAGE
S-II STAGE
The S-II second
stage is moved
into position for
mating with the
S-IC fi rst stage
Mating of the Apollo
11 spacecraft to
the Saturn V launch
vehicle
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