Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and North American Aviation collaborated to develop and produce the mammoth 363-foot Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the moon in 1969. All 15 S-1Cs were built between 1965 and 1975. Twelve were used on the Apollo missions, and the 13th, in 1973, placed Skylab in Earth orbit. The remaining rockets were placed on display. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
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The S-IC first stage was constructed at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. (NASA)
The Saturn S-II Stage was manufactured by North American Aviation, a company later acquired by Boeing. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
Designed and developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Douglas Aircraft Company in Sacramento, California, the S-IVB stage was powered by a single Rocketdyne J-2 engine, which propelled the Command/Service Modules and LM into Trans Lunar Injection. (NASA)
Astronaut Frank Borman, in his book, Countdown, said: “At its peak, from 1967 into the early seventies, some 20,000 companies and more than 350,000 persons were involved in Apollo’s $25.5 billion mission to land men on the moon. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
A special Boeing team at what is now called Kennedy Space Center monitored launch preparations for Apollo around the clock, ready to react should any emergency arise. Boeing employees wore jumpsuits that were called “ice cream” suits during those days. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
Control Room at Cape Kennedy, Fla. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
Apollo Mission control at Cape Kennedy, Fla. (NASA)
The Apollo Command Module (CM) mated to the Service Module in an unnamed testing facility. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
Work began in the early 1960s, with North American Aviation building the Apollo Command and Service Modules, as well as the Saturn V launch vehicle’s second stage. North American assembled the Command and Service Modules at its Downey plant in Calif., with astronauts dropping by to assist with component testing and the design of the cockpit. A separate North American facility at Seal Beach, Calif., was used to manufacture the Saturn second stage. (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
Boeing Employees inspecting the Apollo Command Module (Photo Courtesy Boeing)
The massive S-IC dwarfs visitors at the special Saturn V hangar exhibit at Kennedy Space Center. (Jason Perlow)
The Apollo Command Module mated to the Service Module at Kennedy Space Center. (Jason Perlow)
The S-IC was erected along with the other stages inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Cape Canaveral, today’s Kennedy Space Center. (NASA)
Another classic shot of the SI-C in the VAB.
Boeing Employees that worked on the S-IC at Kennedy Space Center (Floyd Long)
Sam Philips was director of the Apollo program.
The massive Saturn V was 363 feet tall. (NASA)
The massive Saturn V was 363 feet tall. (NASA)
Two gigantic crawler-transport vehicles were used to transport the Saturn V to pads 39A and 39B. The vehicles are still used today to transport the Space Shuttle to the same launch pads from the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The massive Saturn V rocket being rolled out to the launch pad from the Vehicle Assembly Building on Cape Canaveral.
