Mighty Saturns: Saturn V, The

The Mighty Saturns: Saturn V Historic Aviation www.historicaviation.com; $49.95.

This three-disc set from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment offers more than nine hours of the U.S. government's audio and visual records (some raw and unedited) of the remarkable rocket system that put man on the moon. Disc one offers a traditional 43-minute documentary with an overview narrative, interviews and matching visuals. It recounts the post-War evolution of the U.S. rocket program that employed a team of German and American engineers who found a new focus with President Kennedy's call for an American on the moon before the end of the 1960s.

In dramatic fashion, a politically designated time factor was now added to the pressures of creating the powerplant required to generate the previously undreamed of power and cope with corresponding structural stresses necessary to get an astronaut team to the moon. What ultimately came to be known as the Saturn V rocket had to produce 7.5 million pounds of thrust on the launch pad just to begin to move the enormous Apollo complex of multi-stage rockets, a crew capsule and a lunar lander into space. New technologies that ranged from innovative welding systems to flawless turbo pumps had to be devised. The efforts of thousands had to be coordinated, and their products brought together within the constraints of time and budget. Unexpected engineering problems were encountered at every turn-particularly with the design of the second-stage booster by North American Aviation of Los Angeles.

Yet it all came together before the end of the decade with Apollo 4's successful launch in 1967. The footage on disc one follows the Apollo program and includes images from the first moon landing in 1969 to the final Apollo 17 launch during the 1970s. It is an inspiring story of trial and, eventually, a national triumphenhanced by a winning musical score. The rest of disc one (and discs two and three) comprises essentially unedited audio and visual material-much of it from NASA-and footage of test-engine firings and the launching of the various Saturn V boosted space vehicles, up to and including Apollo 12.

For true aerospace buffs, "The Mighty Saturns" offers a remarkable compilation of hours of footage that's beyond comparison.

Copyright Air Age Publishing Feb 2005
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