The S-IB stage was the first stage of the Saturn IB launch vehicle, which was used for Earth orbital missions. It was an upgraded version of the S-I stage used on the earlier Saturn I rocket and was composed of nine propellant containers, eight fins, a thrust structure assembly, eight H-1

rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...

s, and many other components. It also contained the ODOP transponder. The propellant containers consisted of eight Redstone-derived tanks (four holding

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

(LOX) and four holding

RP-1 RP-1 (Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) and similar fuels like RG-1 and T-1 are highly refined kerosene formulations used as rocket fuel. Liquid-fueled rockets that use RP-1 as fuel are known as kerolox rockets. In their engines, RP- ...

) clustered around a Jupiter rocket-derived tank containing LOX. The four outboard engines

gimbal A gimbal is a pivoted support that permits rotation of an object about an axis. A set of three gimbals, one mounted on the other with orthogonal pivot axes, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain independent of ...

led to steer the rocket in flight, which required a few more engine components. The S-IB burned for nearly 2.5 minutes before separating at an altitude of .

Specifications

*Height: *Diameter: *Number of fins: 8 *Finspan: *Engines: 8 Rocketdyne H-1 *Thrust: *Fuel:

(Refined

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

) 41,000 US gal (155 m³) *Oxidizer: Liquid

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

( LOX) 66,277 US gal (251 m³) nominal capacity including 1.5% ullage volume (43,284 US gal / 163 m³ in four outer tanks plus 22,993 US gal / 87 m³ in center tank) *Burn time: 2.5 min *Burnout altitude:

Stages built

Apollo flights: * S-IB-1: Launched 2/26/1966 on suborbital AS-201 mission. * S-IB-3: Launched 7/5/1966 as

AS-203 AS-203 (also known as SA-203 or Apollo 3) was an uncrewed flight of the Saturn IB rocket on July 5, 1966. It carried no command and service module, as its purpose was to verify the design of the S-IVB rocket stage restart capability that would l ...

orbital test mission. * S-IB-2: Launched 8/25/1966 on suborbital

AS-202 AS-202 (also referred to as SA-202 or Apollo 2) was the second uncrewed, suborbital test flight of a production Block I Apollo command and service module launched with the Saturn IB launch vehicle. It was launched on August 25, 1966, and was ...

test mission. * S-IB-4: Launched 1/22/1968 on

Apollo 5 Apollo 5 (launched January 22, 1968), also known as AS-204, was the uncrewed first flight of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) that would later carry astronauts to the surface of the Moon. The Saturn IB rocket bearing the LM lifted off from ...

orbital mission. * S-IB-5: Launched 10/11/1968 on manned

Apollo 7 Apollo 7 (October 11–22, 1968) was the first crewed flight in NASA's Apollo program, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the fire that had killed the three Apollo 1 astronauts during a launch rehearsal test ...

orbital mission. Post-Apollo Flights: * S-IB-6: Launched 5/25/1973 on Skylab-2 orbital mission. * S-IB-7: Launched 7/23/1973 on Skylab-3 orbital mission. * S-IB-8: Launched 11/16/1973 on Skylab-4 orbital mission. * S-IB-10: Launched 7/15/1975 on ASTP orbital mission. Hardware Not Flown: * S-IB-9: Stacked on MLP ready to fly as Skylab backup. Now on display at

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, and a range of bus tou ...

. * S-IB-11: Flight not assigned. Displayed vertically at Alabama Welcome Center until late 2023, when it was dismantled due to weathering. * S-IB-12: Flight not assigned. Presumed scrapped at

Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...

in late 1970s. * S-IB-13: Hardware scrapped. * S-IB-14: Hardware scrapped. * S-IB-15: Not built, cancelled by NASA in 1968. * S-IB-16: Not built, cancelled by NASA in 1968.

References

{{Reflist Rocket stages Saturn IB