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Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Thursday, July 4, 2019
500-F: BEAUTY QUEEN WITH FEET OF LEAD.
Apollo 11 fever is spreading and along with it are tons of
images of what many think is the most photogenic of the Saturn V vehicles. Its image is being
replicated on T-shirts and space packages and anywhere else that the newborn space hucksters can find a use for it. Most of them have no idea as to which Saturn V
it actually is… it just looks cool. And that whim is hard for any space buff to
argue.
Saturn V configurations circa 1964 |
Vehicle 500-F was never intended to fly, instead it had a
more critical role to play. This complete Saturn V was set to test all of the
systems and connections that would be required for the flight vehicles. It
would test the assembly techniques and tools in the VAB, prove the Mobile
Launch System could work, test the fuel and electrical connections at Pad 39A
and most importantly, allow systems to fail. The idea was that if you were
going to have a system failure, let it happen to this vehicle, and not the
flight vehicles.
On May 25, 1966 the first fully stacked
Saturn V, vehicle 500-F, rolled out of the VAB perched upon a freshly painted brand
new Mobile Launcher.
Considering the significance of this event, it is no
wonder that vehicle 500-F was one of the most photographed of the Saturn
rockets. Both NASA and the news media had an army of photographers on hand to
capture the event. NASA maintained their photographic army during the entire
500-F test run, and the vehicle seems to show up on every post card and NASA
publication to this day.
Anti-sway arms seen here on Apollo 14 |
Areas of the roll pattern that were painted white are clearly seen here on Vehicle 501, Apollo 4. |
Mobile Service Structure being crawlered up to 500-F |
The 500-F tests also allowed the Mobile Service Structure
to be placed around a Saturn V launch vehicle for the first time. When you look
at this image, you can see the importance of the 500-F test. Everything had to
fit, and 500-F made sure that everything did indeed fit. Interestingly, although 500-F had been mounted on Pad 39A on May 25, it stood there alone with the LUT for more than two months. The Mobile Service Structure didn't get its first ever crawler lift and ride to the pad until July 20, 1966!
Of course the best thing about 500-F was that it left us
with some really cool pictures to admire.
Yet the real purpose was to check fittings and systems.
Here is a clear view of the mass-simulators (arrows) seen as S-IC-F was lowered onto the mobile launcher's platform in the VAB's high bay number 1 on 15 March 1966. |
What many space buffs do not know is
that the S-IC-F first stage of 500-F only had one F-1 engine, and that was a
mockup. In the place of the other four F-1s were four “mass simulators” which
were simply dead weights with the same mass as an F-1 engine. Although the S-II-F
had been constructed with J-2 engines, it too was switched to five mass
simulators before being stacked as a part of vehicle 500-F. Interestingly, S-IVB-F
first arrived at KSC on June 30, 1965 and was used for facilities checkout on Launch
Complex 34. S-IVB-F never had an engine or mass simulator installed.
Seen here are the five S-II J-2 mass simulators. Thanks to Stephen Isherwood Facebooks "VAB Past, Present & Future" page. |
Each and every component that made up the Saturn V launch
system had, until this point, been simply drawings on paper on the desks of
thousands of engineers around the country. This was the first time that they
had all been physically put together.
500-F even provided for an unexpected test of emergency
procedures when Hurricane Alma came blowing past the Cape. In a test under
actual conditions, the vehicle was removed from the pad and returned to the
protection of the VAB. At 1:00 pm on June 8, 1966 the order was given to move 500-F back into the shelter of the VAB. It took three hours to unplug and detach everything and the crawler began to move the stack at 5:33 pm. By 11:43 pm the trip was successfully completed in driving rain and winds
of up to 65 miles per hour.
Although 500-F provided critical systems data that was
key in the success of the flight versions of the Saturn V, it continued to
provide really cool photo opportunities. In this one we see an Air Force Titan
III launch.
In this photo (the author’s favorite, by the way) Gemini
11 is seen lifting off on September 12, 1966. In the background can be seen
Launch Complex 37 (arrow) and vehicle 500-F (longer arrow) on Pad 39A.
And in this one Don Knotts poses in front of 500-F which
was his costar in the movie “The Reluctant Astronaut.” That movie, which was
Knott’s own concept inspired by a mild fear of flying that he had developed in
the mid 196os but overcame some years later. He was on an airliner fearful of
every bump when he picked up a newspaper and began to read a story about an
astronaut. “What if there was an astronaut who was afraid of heights?” he
thought- and the “Reluctant Astronaut” concept was born. They were given 23
days by the studio to shoot the entire movie- and did so. Along the way they
asked NASA if the crew could shoot at Houston’s Manned Space Center and Kennedy
Space Center expecting to be turned down. Instead, NASA opened the doors and
let them shoot where ever they wanted! They even shot on the mobile launcher
for vehicle 500-F.
On October 14, 1966 vehicle 500-F was rolled back to the VAB from Launch Complex 39A and de-stacking of the stage was completed seven days later. The S-IC-F stage was then barged back to MSFC Huntsville- I’ve uncovered no firm record of its end. The S-II-F stage was transferred to MSFC Huntsville and in June 1969 and it was given five J-2 engines and made into a display. Eventually it became a part of MSFC’s horizontal Saturn V and was declared a national landmark. Likewise, at the same period in time S-IVB-F was also placed as a part of that display.
Check out the whole Growing up with Spaceflight series HERE and save a lunar module. |
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