Technology
The Rocket With the Perfect Record? Hint: It's not at SpaceX.
2023-12-14
The Saturn 1 project originated with a U.S. Army requirement for a heavy lift launch vehicle in the late 1950s and was ready for initial test flights shortly after President Kennedy announced the Apollo moon landing program.
The timing was perfect, since the program needed launch vehicles to test Apollo flight hardware a fast as possible. Reliability of launch vehicle systems early 1960s was not good and explosions, guidance problems and propulsion failures were surprisingly common.
Saturn 1 however, in its first iteration, flew 10 times between 1961 and 1965, with no failures. And then the follow-on Saturn 1B flew 9 times, again with perfect reliability. Why? Great design and forward planning.
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