Saturn V Missile

Saturn V was developed to carry the Apollo spacecraft into lunar orbit. At 104 tons, the rocket payload was roughly 4 times that of the Space Shuttle. Saturn V development commenced in 1961 with formal government approval of the Apollo program. In order to launch what at that time would be the largest rocket ever, a special rocket assembly facility and No.39 launch complex was newly constructed at the Kennedy Space Center. The first test launch of the Saturn V took place in November 1967. In December 1968, the third Saturn V to be launched sent Apollo 8 around the Moon. The sixth Saturn V launched on July 20, 1969 propelled Apollo 11 to the Moon for the first successful manned landing on the lunar surface. The Saturn V rocket was used for subsequent Apollo missions to the Moon. With termination of the Apollo program after the Apollo 17 mission, however, three Saturn V rockets out of the total of 15 produced remained unused. Of these, one was subsequently used to carry the manned Skylab 1 (space station) mission into space. The remaining two unused versions of the Saturn V are now on display to the public.