Interesting how they say “Saturn I” throughout (except for one reference to “Uprated Saturn I”) since the S-IVb (a name that doesn’t appear in the lithograph, at least the part shown) was the second stage of the “Uprated Saturn I”, a/k/a Saturn Ib (the S-IV, with 6 RL-10s instead of a J-2 was the Saturn I second stage).
Anonymous
I vote for the Saturn 1B as the most beautiful (ok, visually appealing) launch vehicle ever.
Old number 7 is attractive in a sort of 50s classic way, but the bare metal version of the Proton is gorgeous.
A NASA illustration of the first stage of the Saturn C-5, from very early 1962. It is more or less what the S-IC stage became, except for much larger stabilizer fins and separation rockets located up front, rather than in the engine fairings. […]
At first the lawyers were all… But then… I wish we lived in a society where lawyers who attempt to use the legal system to bully people were easily slapped down with smartassery like this. Sadly, we don’t. […]
A book excerpt from “The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking” which looks to be a pretty interesting history of air travel in the late 1960′s/early 1970′s, when “this plane/bus/train is going to Cuba” became something of a recurring joke: How Hijackers Commandeered Over 130 American Planes — […]
When I was in college, twenty fargin’ years ago, I cranked out a lot of amateurish science fiction. Tried to get a few stories published, never did (because they sucked, I imagine). I wrote dozens of stories, short and long, probably a couple novels worth of crap. And from the time I left college until […]
The Stunning Fall Of Generation X Simply put, the weight of the recession fell squarely onto Gen X’ers, those born between the mid 60′s an early 80′s. We’ve lost about half of our wealth, while Baby Boomers and the like have made substantial gains. As the boomers continue to retire, this trend will only get […]
I have several large format vellum cyanotype blueprints available. These are hand-made items, not run off on a machine. They are made using old cyanotyping techniques and chemicals, on a series of home-made frameworks. the end result is a true royal-blue “blueprint” on vellum paper… with the same appearance and feel of a vintage blueprint. […]
One of the more misunderstood maladies of our age finally gets a PSA: [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] […]
Before the Polaris missile was developed, the US Navy studied several approaches to using submarines to launch ballistic missiles. An early idea was taken directly from WWII Germany… store Jupiter IRBMs in special canisters, towed behind subs. These would be partially flooded whe the subs got to the launch site; this would cause the canister […]