Juno V: Part 3. This time it’s recoverable!

Well into the Saturn I program, recovery of the first stage was accepted as a given. Reusability was not, however. The intent early on was to recover the boosters just to see how damaged they were… and what could be done to *make* them recoverable. it was a perfectly logical approach, eventually nixed by the need to Go Faster. What’s especially sad is that the H-1 engine was not designed for reusability… but test firings followed by salt water immersion followed by a few man-weeks of disassembly, washing with deionized water, and hozing down with WD-40, and then followed up by a second test firing showed that the rugged little engine was perfectly reusable. The clustered construction of the Saturn I first stage meant that it was rugged as a bridge, and would ahve likely survived splashdown.

Recovery would have have been accomplished via parachutes, with braking applied at the last second by eight or so solid rocket motors at the tail end (these motors are often depicted in early Saturn artwork, models and diagrams). One idea for how to fire the motors was quite simple… once the chutes were deployed, a package would be released at the tail. Down would drop a long rope or cable, at the end of which was a simple sensor. When the sensor hit the water, it sent a signal that would fire the rockets.

This is how recovery of the Juno V booster was envisioned.