|
THE MOON ROCKET
CHALLENGE
|
When
the Space Race began, there was no rocket powerful enough to send
a man to the Moon and back. Both the Americans and the Soviets had
to develop a super-booster, or Moon rocket. The United States succeeded
with the mighty Saturn V. The Soviets' N-1 Moon rocket never made
it into space.
|
| Both
the United States and the Soviet Union began their separate quests
for a Moon rocket by scaling up existing smaller rockets into gigantic
multi-stage launch vehicles. |
|
United
States
|
Mercury-Atlas
| Size: |
29 m (95
ft) |
| Thrust: |
1,632,000
newtons (367,000 lb) |
| Payload
to orbit: |
1,400 kg
(3,000 lb) |
Image credit:
"Rockets of the World" by Peter Alway,
published by Saturn Press.
|
|
|
Saturn
V
| Size: |
111 m (363
ft) |
| Thrust: |
33,600,000
newtons (7,500,00 lb) |
| Payload
to orbit: |
129,300
kg (285,000 lb) |
| Payload
to Moon: |
48,500 kg
(107,000 lb) |
Image credit:
"Rockets of the World" by Peter Alway,
published by Saturn Press.
|
|
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