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Saturn V Geneology
Credit: © Mark Wade. 14,975 bytes. 639 x 460 pixels. |
After the Saturn V drawings had been issued, Marshall engineers immediately turned to considering further developments of the basic launch vehicle. These would be required for Apollo Applications, Manned Orbiting Research Laboratory, Mars fly-by, and Mars landing missions in the 1970's and 1980's.
Contracts were let for a variety of trade studies. There were limits to how far the core stack could be stretched, dictated by the 410 foot maximum overhead crane height in the Vertical Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (this did not prevent 470 foot versions being proposed, including the nuclear NERVA third stage, for manned missions to Mars - they'd just have to raise the roof, darn it). Given these limits, a variety of strap-on solid motors were considered.
The most feasible, lowest development cost improvement would have used upgraded F-1 motors, an S- IC first stage stretch, modest upgrades to the J-2 upper stage motors, and proven 120 inch solid rocket motor strap-ons. If a follow-on Saturn V production contract had ever been issued, it probably would have been for this configuration. More advanced versions would have used Flox oxidizer (liquid fluorine mixed with the liquid oxygen oxidizer - nasty to handle, but increased performance with minimal changes to the existing motors and pumps), new technology engines (plug nozzles or high-pressure combustion engines - the ancestors of the Shuttle SSME's). Instead America abandoned its heavy lift capability and further manned exploration of space. The two unused flightworthy Saturn V's from the inital production run of 15 became tourist displays at Cape Canaveral and Huntsville. A third Saturn V, exhibited in Houston, is made up of static test article stages.
 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn V. Lunar landing booster. Design frozen before landing mode selected; could be used for either EOR or LOR methods. Ended up with same payload capability as Nova. Size dictated by ceiling height at Michoud factory selected for first stage manufacture. |
 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-1. MSFC study, 1965. Improved Saturn V configuration studied under contract NAS8-11359. Saturn IC stretched 240 inches with 5.6 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1A engines; S-II stretched 41 inches with 1.0 million pounds propellant and 5 J-2 engines; S-IVB strengthened but with standard 230,000 lbs propellant, 1 J-2 engine.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-1/J-2T/200K. MSFC study, 1965. Improved Saturn V configuration studied under contract NAS8-11359. Variant of MLV-V-1 with toroidal J-2T-200K engines replacing standard J-2 engines in upper stages. |
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-1/J-2T/250K. MSFC study, 1965. Improved Saturn V configuration studied under contract NAS8-11359. Variant of MLV-V-1 with toroidal J-2T-250K engines replacing standard J-2 engines in upper stages. |
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-1A. MSFC study, 1965. Saturn IC stretched 240 inches with 5.6 million pounds propellant and 6 F-1 engines; S-II stretched 156 inches with 1.2 million pounds propellant and 7 J-2 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 J-2 engine. |
 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-2. MSFC study, 1965. Saturn IC stretched 240 inches with 5.6 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1A engines; S-II stretched 41 inches with 1.0 million pounds propellant and 5 J-2 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 HG-3 engine. |
 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-3. MSFC study, 1965. Ultimate core for improved Saturn V configurations studied under contract NAS8-11359. Saturn IC stretched 240 inches with 5.6 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1A engines; S-II stretched 156 inches with 1.2 million pounds propellant and 5 HG-3 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 HG-3 engine.
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 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-4(S). MSFC study, 1965. Saturn V core, strengthened but not stretched, with 4 Titan UA1205 strap-on solid rocket boosters. |
 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-4(S)-A. MSFC study, 1965. 4 Titan UA1205 solid rocket boosters; Saturn IC stretched 337 inches with 6.0 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1 engines; S-II with 970,000 pounds propellant and 5 J-2 engines; S-IVB strengthened but with standard 230,000 lbs propellant, 1 J-2 engine.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-ELV. NASA study, 1966. No-height-limitation stretched Saturn with Titan UA1207 motors for thrust augmentation. |
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn INT-20. Saturn variant consisting of S-IC first stage and S-IVB second stage. Consideration was given to deleting one or more of the F-1 engines in the first stage.
| Liftoff Mass - kg | S-IC - No.
F-1 Motors | Payload - kg - 4.68 G limit | Payload - kg - 6.0 G limit |
| 1,107,000 | 2 | 36,000 | 27,000 |
| 1,655,000 | 3 | 78,000 | 47,000 |
| 2,209,000 | 4 | 132,000 | 63,000 |
| 2,299,000 | 5 | 133,000 | 72,000 |
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 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn INT-21. Saturn variant consisting of S-IC first stage and S-II second stage. This essentially flew once to launch Skylab in 1972, although the IU was located atop the Skylab space station (converted S-IVB stage) rather than atop the S-II as in the INT-21 design.
| Liftoff Mass - kg | S-IC - No.
F-1 Motors | S-II - No. J-2 Motors | Payload - kg - 4.68 G limit |
| 2,209,000 | 4 | 3 | 76,000 |
| 2,209,000 | 4 | 4 | 84,000 |
| 2,209,000 | 4 | 5 | 89,000 |
| 2,762,000 | 5 | 3 | 101,000 |
| 2,762,000 | 5 | 4 | 112,000 |
| 2,762,000 | 5 | 5 | 116,000 |
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 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn MLV-V-4(S)-B. Boeing study, 1967. Configuration of improved Saturn 5 with Titan UA1207 120 inch solid rocket boosters. Saturn IC stretched 336 inches with 6.0 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1 engines; Saturn II and Saturn IVB stages strengthened but not stretched. Empty mass of stages increased by 13.9% (S-IC), 8.6% (S-II) and 11.8% (S-IVB). Studied again by Boeing in 1967 as Saturn V-4(S)B.
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 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-23(L). Boeing study, 1967. 4 260 inch liquid propellant boosters (each with 2 F-1's!).; Saturn IC stretched 240 inches with 5.6 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1 engines; S-II strengthened but with standard 930,000 pounds propellant and 5 J-2 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 J-2 engine.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-24(L). Boeing study, 1967. 4 260 inch liquid propellant boosters (each with 2 F-1A).; Saturn IC stretched 336 inches with 6.0 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1A engines; S-II stretched 156 inches with 1.2 million pounds propellant and 5 HG-3 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 HG-3 engine. Not studied in detail since vehicle height of 600 feet with payload exceeded study limit of 410 feet.
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 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-25(S)B. Boeing study, 1967. 4 156 inch solid propellant boosters; Saturn IC stretched 498 inches with 6.64 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1 engines; S-II standard length with 5 J-2 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 J-2 engine.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-3B. Boeing study, 1967. Variation on MSFC 1965 study Saturn MLV-V-3 but with toroidal engines. Saturn IC stretched 240 inches with 5.6 million pounds propellant (but only 4.99 million pounds usable without solid rocket boosters) and 5 F-1A engines; S-II stretched 186 inches with 1.29 million lbs propellant and 5 J-2T-400 engines; S-IVB stretched 198 inches with 350,000 lbs propellant, 1 J-2T-400 engine.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V/4-260. Boeing study, 1967-1968. Use of full length 260 inch solid rocket boosters with stretched Saturn IC stages presented problems, since the top of the motors came about half way up the liquid oxygen tank of the stage, making transmission of loads from the motors to the core vehicle complex and adding a great deal of weight to the S-IC. Boeing's solution was to retain the standard length Saturn IC, with the 260 inch motors ending half way up the S-IC/S-II interstage, but to provide additional propellant for the S-IC by putting propellant tanks above the 260 inch boosters. These would be drained first and jettisoned with the boosters. This added to the plumbing complexity but solved the loads problem.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-25(S)U. Boeing study, 1968. 4 156 inch solid propellant boosters; Saturn IC stretched 498 inches with 6.64 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1 engines; S-II standard length with 5 J-2 engines. This vehicle would place Nerva nuclear third stage into low earth orbit, where five such stages would be assembled together with the spacecraft for a manned Mars expedition.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-4X(U). Boeing study, 1968. Four core vehicles from Saturn V-25(S) study lashed together to obtain million-pound payload using existing hardware. First stage consisted of 4 Saturn IC's stretched 498 inches with 6.64 million pounds propellant and 5 F-1 engines; second stage 4 Saturn II standard length stages with 5 J-2 engines
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-A. MSFC study, 1968. Essentially identical to Saturn INT-20; standard Saturn IC stage together with Saturn IVB second stage, with Centaur third stage for deep space missions. |
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-B. MSFC study, 1968. Intriguing stage-and-a-half to orbit design using Saturn S-ID stage. The S-ID would be the same length and engines as the standard Saturn IC, but the four outer engines and their boost structure would be jettisoned once 70% of the propellant was consumed, as in the Atlas ICBM. This booster engine assembly would be recovered and reused. The center engine would be gimbaled and serve as a sustainer engine to put the rest of the vehicle and its 50,000 pound payload into orbit. At very minimal cost (36 months leadtime and $ 150 million) the United States could have attained a payload capability and level of reusability similar to that of the space shuttle.
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-C. MSFC study, 1968. S-ID stage-and-a-half first stage and Saturn IVB second stage. Centaur available as third stage for deep space missions. 30% performance improvement over Saturn V-A/Saturn INT-20 with standard Saturn IC first stage. |
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| Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-Centaur. MSFC study, 1968. S-ID stage-and-a-half first stage and Saturn IVB second stage. Centaur available as third stage for deep space missions. 30% performance improvement over Saturn V-A/Saturn INT-20 with standard Saturn IC first stage. |
 | Launch Vehicle: Saturn V-D. MSFC study, 1968. Rehashed the Boeing 1967 studies, covering a variety of stage stretches and 120, 156, or 260 inch solid rocket boosters, but with S-ID stage-and-a-half first stage. |
 | Launch Vehicle: Jarvis. Launch vehicle planned for Pacific launch based on Saturn V engines, tooling. Masses, payload estimated. |
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Last update 3 May 2001.
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© Mark Wade, 2001 .
