" THE SATURN 1B STORY ” 1960s NASA DOCUMENTARY APOLLO PROGRAM SATURN 1B ROCKET GG44195

Video from the channel PeriscopeFilm about Saturn IB, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 13:33. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

A NASA film following the preparation and first flight of the Apollo-Saturn IB, the intermediate launch vehicle of the Saturn family. It covers the manufacturing of each part: the first stage, with a cluster of eight engines; the second, with a single liquid-hydrogen J-2 engine; the instrument unit that guides the vehicle; and the Apollo payload. It ends with animations of the planned suborbital trajectory, the countdown, liftoff, and onboard camera footage during stage separation.

This is period footage, shot in the mid-1960s. It shows the Michoud plant (New Orleans), where Chrysler assembled the first stage; the Huntsville static firing test in March 1965; the Sacramento test center, where the second stage was tested; barge transport; and the Cape Kennedy pad.

According to the narration, the project started in 1962 to test the complete Apollo spacecraft in Earth orbit without having to develop a new vehicle. The first stage went from 1.5 to 1.6 million pounds of thrust and weighed 20,000 pounds less than the Saturn I's. The second stage would later be used as the Saturn V's third stage. The flight, a suborbital launch, was meant to test the Apollo heat shield in a reentry at nearly 18,000 miles per hour and demonstrate the operation of the propulsion module and the recovery system.