The launch crew
|
The project mastermind, Ken Sparks
|
The scaffolding took longer to assemble than the rocket
|
The Saturn V from below
|
A magestic liftoff before Mr. Murphy came a' calling.
|
One of the K700 casings over pressurized and blew out the forward closure, sending a 6000°F blowtorch into the structural foam. The combusting white Styrofoam split open the fiberglass skin creating a fireball that looked like exploding liquid oxygen.
|
The flames fused all the breakwires that were to trigger the ignition of the second stage motors, so the second stage remained attached until the parachutes deployed.
|
One timer survived to ignite the third stage. The trajectory was slightly better than horizontal, but it was stable.
|
The first stage continued to burn all the way to the ground.
|
Here it started a small grassfire, but the fire crews were already hoofing it to the landing site to contain the flames. The other stages and the command module returned safely under chute.
|