What Was The Top Speed Of The Saturn V Rocket As It Propelled The Astronauts To The Moon?
The Saturn V rocket was part of the technology that made the Apollo mission successful and played a pivotal role in launching Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969, marking a turning point in human history. As it carried the astronauts beyond the bounds of our atmosphere, the Saturn V's speed surpassed anything most aircraft could ever achieve.
After translunar injection (when the third stage of Saturn V reignited to send Apollo 11 toward the Moon), the spacecraft's speed relative to Earth reached 24,200 miles per hour. But as soon as it reached that astonishing speed, the craft quickly slowed down to a speed of around 2,000 mph. Once the Apollo 11 crew reached the Moon's gravity, the speed increased to 5,600 mph.
While the Saturn V's top speed is indeed incredible, the Apollo 10 actually set the bar just months before, in May of 1969. Apollo 10's eight-day voyage, which included orbiting the Moon, saw the craft become one of the fastest human-made objects to ever enter space. It reentered Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 24,791 miles per hour, the fastest for any manned space mission.
The Saturn V's immense size and power supported 13 years of successful launches
Standing at 363 feet tall and weighing around 6.2 million pounds, the Saturn V rocket successfully launched 13 missions, beginning with Apollo 4 in 1967 and ending with Skylab, America's first space station, in 1973. The Apollo 4 mission is credited for refocusing the nation on space travel after the disastrous Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967. That fire killed three American astronauts, making it one of the worst accidents recorded in space exploration history.
But the Saturn V's size wasn't the only factor that made the rocket outperform any space vehicle that NASA had ever built before. It was the Saturn V's power that made the difference, as it boasted 7.5 million pounds of thrust, fueled by almost a million gallons of liquid oxygen, hydrogen, and gasoline.
The Saturn V journeyed to the moon a total of nine times during its years of service and is still the only rocket to take humans beyond low Earth orbit. It's now on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, and it remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown.