ASSEMBLING THE APOLLO SPACECRAFT & SATURN V ROCKET for MOON MISSIONS 79964

Video from the channel PeriscopeFilm about Saturn V, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:50. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

This is an official NASA film following the assembly of an Apollo Saturn V. The parts arrive at Kennedy Space Center by special aircraft, barges and ships, and come together in the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, two cranes raise the first stage upright and lower it onto the mobile launcher, where hold-down arms secure it and two service arms are connected, supplying fuel, communications and electricity. Work platforms surround it for inspections. Afterwards the second stage, the third stage and the instrument unit — the smallest section, which controls the flight from liftoff until the spacecraft sets course for the Moon — are stacked on top.

It was filmed at Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo program and before the first Moon landing: the narration presents the lunar module as the craft in which two astronauts will one day land on the Moon.

At the same time, in the manned spacecraft operations building, the lunar module, the service module (main engine and electrical system) and the command module — the only part that returns to Earth — are tested separately. Once the spacecraft is mounted on the rocket, the launch escape tower is added. The assembly, 36 stories tall, still undergoes weeks of testing before it can launch.