 The first stage falls into the ocean. None of the recovered parts from the Apollo-Saturn missions were ever reused, as they are on today's shuttles. |
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The first stage falls into the ocean. None of the recovered parts from the Apollo-Saturn missions were ever reused, as they are on today's shuttles. |
 As this system is jettisoned, the astronauts can no longer escape quickly if something goes wrong. But they will soon be in earth orbit.Remarkably, no major fault ever occurred in any of the SaturnV launches, even though millions of components had to work perfectly the first time, every time! |
 After a few orbits of earth to check that everything was working, the final stage again ignites, boosting the spacecraft into a long looping orbit away from earth and towards where the moon will be in three days. |
 Soon after leaving the earth, the Command module separates, and turns. It will attach itself nose - to - nose with the Lunar module hidden inside shrouds atop the third stage.This multi-step, multi-vehicle method was first proposed by Werhner von Braun in the early sixties. |
 A view of the Lunar module as the Command module prepares to dock with it. Notice that the shrouds have already fallen away. Astronauts had been practicing such docking maneuvers for years, on the Gemini and earlier Apollo missions. |