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Rosco T.

(6,496 posts) Wed Mar 28, 2012, 08:14 PM Mar 2012

Bezos team finds Apollo 11 rocket engines on Atlantic floor

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/03/bezos-team-finds-apollo-11-rocket-engines-on-atlantic-floor/1?csp=34news#.T3OoatXy1y0

Bezos team finds Apollo 11 rocket engines on Atlantic floor
Mar 28, 2012

By Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says the five rocket booster engines that launched Apollo 11 to the moon in July 1969 have been found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

A Bezos Expeditions team using state-0f-the-art sonar found the F-1 engines in 14,000 feet of water, and "we're making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them," he announced today. He did not say when or exactly where they would found.

Bezos, who watched the Apollo launch on TV when he was 5 years old, writes, "A year or so ago, I started to wonder, with the right team of undersea pros, could we find and potentially recover the F-1 engines that started mankind's mission to the moon?"

(snip)

Although they hit the water and high velocity and have been submerged in salt water for almost 43 years, Bozos said, "they're made of tough stuff, so we'll see."

What would happen to the engines if they're recovered is still not known. They still belong to NASA. "We'll keep you posted," Bezos concludes.

(more)

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This.
Is.
Neat.

4 replies

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Bezos team finds Apollo 11 rocket engines on Atlantic floor (Original Post) Rosco T. Mar 2012 OP

The Saturn V longship Mar 2012 #1

I have... the one at JSC in Houston... Rosco T. Mar 2012 #2

1968 - was there for Apollo 8's launch .... BOHICA12 Mar 2012 #3

That's pretty neat. One of my favorite tidbits of Apollo history is the notion of the "all-up" test cherokeeprogressive Mar 2012 #4

longship

(40,416 posts)

1. The Saturn V

Reply to Rosco T. (Original post)

Wed Mar 28, 2012, 10:17 PM

Mar 2012

I've never been to the Kennedy Space Center but I hear on good authority that the most impressive exhibit is the Saturn V exhibit.

Saturn V

It was 363 feet tall, over 33 feet in diameter, weighed 6,699,000 lbs, could launch 262,000 lbs into orbit and 100,000 lbs to the moon. It is one of humankind's greatest technological achievements. Consider that this was all before the microcomputer revolution. All the electronics on the Saturn V were very primitive.

Yet humans went to the moon enough times on that vehicle that the program basically died because the public lost interest in it.

Oh! I wish that we'd have a chance to lose interest in a lot of bullshit and return to the moon, and beyond.

Rosco T.

(6,496 posts)

2. I have... the one at JSC in Houston...

Reply to longship (Reply #1)

Wed Mar 28, 2012, 10:26 PM

Mar 2012

.. it's.. stunning. You see it as you drive in.. and it goes on... and on... and on.... and on....

It used to be an open air display, but a few years ago they built a building around it.

BOHICA12

(471 posts)

3. 1968 - was there for Apollo 8's launch ....

Reply to longship (Reply #1)

Wed Mar 28, 2012, 10:32 PM

Mar 2012

talk about the finger of god! You felt it before you heard it - the ground shook first. When we were fishing on the St. Johns - you could feel them through the hull - from 25 miles away. Awesome for a sub-10 year old!

cherokeeprogressive

(24,853 posts)

4. That's pretty neat. One of my favorite tidbits of Apollo history is the notion of the "all-up" test

Reply to Rosco T. (Original post)

Wed Mar 28, 2012, 11:29 PM

Mar 2012

Instead of testing each stage independently, they saved time by just assembling the whole rocket with all its components and lit the fuse.

That's confidence. I doubt such a huge team could be assembled today with skills and craftsmanship who could pull something like that off.

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-350/ch-3-4.html

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