Saturn C-8

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Saturn C-8 was the largest rocket NASA ever committed to designing, and it never flew. Its first two stages each carried more engines than the standard Saturn configuration allowed. That extra power was built for one purpose: a direct flight from Earth to the lunar surface, with no stop in orbit required. The answers to why that approach fell short reach from a factory roof in Louisiana to a strategic decision made in 1962.

  1

• 2. Built for Scale

  ›

  The S-IC-8, the C-8's first stage, was a widened version of the standard S-IC. The greater diameter accommodated eight F-1 engines instead of the standard five. The second stage, designated S-II-8, matched that expanded design. It was a widened variant of the standard S-II, also fitted with eight engines rather than the normal five. Atop these two enlarged stages sat a stretched S-IVB. Unlike the stages below, the S-IVB kept its original diameter and its single engine. The eight-engine first stage, 40 feet across, would set the terms for every practical decision that followed.

  1

• 3. The Michoud Constraint

  ›

  On the 7th of September 1961, NASA selected the Michoud Ordnance Plant near New Orleans, Louisiana. It would serve as the production site for Saturn first stages and larger vehicles in the program. The plant was government-owned, as was its rival candidate in St. Louis. New Orleans won the selection. Michoud came with a fixed constraint, however: the factory roof was not tall enough to accommodate a launch vehicle 40 feet in diameter. That was the minimum the C-8 required. For the plant to host the work, the vehicle would have to shrink. Four or five engines per first stage, fitting within a 33-foot diameter, was the most Michoud could handle. The C-8 required more. The Michoud selection closed off not just the C-8 but the full Nova-class category of launch vehicles. That included their potential role as heavy-lift platforms for Earth orbit rendezvous missions.

  1

• 4. The LOR Decision

  ›

  The lunar orbit rendezvous concept, approved in 1962, made the C-8 obsolete. Under LOR, the mission spacecraft fell within the payload capacity of a smaller vehicle. That vehicle was the Saturn C-5, which proceeded under the designation Saturn V. The C-8 had been sized for a direct-ascent mission that would not be flown. Too large and too costly to serve any other purpose, it never advanced past the design stage. Designed as a potential alternative to the Nova rocket, the C-8 had been waiting on a single strategic choice. NASA's 1962 decision made that choice in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous.

  1