Apollo Launch, 39 Years Ago
| published March 5, 2015 |
By Thursday Review editors
Hey science buffs and Thursday Review readers: are you old enough to remember this on TV? 39 years ago (February 26, 1966) NASA tested the Apollo-Saturn 201—the first of the Saturn IB launches—with an unmanned liftoff and suborbital flight. This photo illustrates the moment of liftoff as the massive rocket rises slowly off the launch pad. This test proved that most of the most important elements of the proposed manned missions to the moon would work properly, including the multi-staging and the liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fuel system. According to NASA, the rocket pictured here reached an altitude of more than 300 miles and travelled 5,264 miles.
Photo courtesy of NASA.
Related Thursday Review articles:
The View From Above; Thursday Review staff; Thursday Review; March 3, 2015