The Saturn C-8 was the largest member of the

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

series of rockets to be designed. It was a potential alternative to the

Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

rocket, should

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

have chosen a

direct ascent Direct ascent is a method of landing a spacecraft on the Moon or another planetary surface directly, without first assembling the vehicle in Earth orbit, or carrying a separate landing vehicle into orbit around the target body. It was proposed ...

method of lunar exploration for the

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

. The first stage was an increased-diameter version of the

S-IC The S-IC (pronounced S-one-C) was the first stage of the American Saturn V rocket. The S-IC stage was manufactured by the Boeing Company. Like the first stages of most rockets, more than 90% of the mass at launch was propellant, in this case RP ...

. The second stage was an increased-diameter version of the S-II. Both of these stages had eight engines, as opposed to the standard five. The third stage was a stretched

S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth ...

stage, which retained its original diameter and engine. NASA announced on September 7, 1961, that the government-owned Michoud Ordnance Plant near

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana, would be the site for fabrication and assembly of the Saturn first stages as well as larger vehicles in the Saturn program. Finalists were two government-owned plants in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

and New Orleans. The height of the factory roof at Michoud meant that a launch vehicle with eight F-1 engines (Saturn C-8, Nova class) could not be built; four or five engines ( diameter) would have to be the maximum. This decision ended consideration of a Nova-class launch vehicle for direct ascent to the Moon or as heavy-lift derivatives for Earth orbit rendezvous. Ultimately, the

lunar orbit rendezvous Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) is a process for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. It was utilized for the Apollo program missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a lunar lander travel to lunar or ...

("LOR") concept approved in 1962 rendered the C-8 obsolete, and the smaller Saturn C-5 was developed instead under the designation "

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

", as the LOR spacecraft was within its payload capacity. The Saturn C-8 configuration was never taken further than the design process, as it was too large and costly.

References

*Bilstein, Roger E, ''Stages to Saturn'', US Government Printing Office, 1980. . Excellent account of the evolution, design, and development of the Saturn launch vehicles. *Stuhlinger, Ernst, et al., Astronautical Engineering and Science: ''From Peenemuende to Planetary Space'', McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964. * NASA, "Earth Orbital Rendezvous for an Early Manned Lunar Landing," pt. I, "Summary Report of Ad Hoc Task Group Study" eaton Report August 1961. * David S. Akens, ''Saturn Illustrated Chronology: Saturn's First Eleven Years, April 1957 through April 1968'', 5th ed., MHR-5 (Huntsville, AL : MSFC, 20 Jan. 1971). * ''Final Report, NASA-DOD Large Launch vehicle Planning Group'', NASA-DOD LLVPG 105 olovin Committee 3 vols., 1 Feb. 1962

External links

Diagram of C-8 with alternate 2-engine 3rd stage
(not to the same proportions as the image above) Cancelled space launch vehicles Saturn C {{Rocket-stub