Snapshot
September 08, 2010
Half a Century Ago
On this day 50 years ago, NASA awarded a contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company for the development of a second stage for the Saturn launch vehicle. That stage, the S-IV, was to be powered by six Centaur rocket engines, and led eventually to the development of the single-rocket-engine S-IVB stage, the third stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle, that carried men out of Earth orbit and to the moon. Shown here is the S-IV's first flight on the unmanned SA-5 mission as it lifted off into overcast skies at Cape Canaveral on January 29, 1964, at 11:25 a.m. local time. The S-IV stage burned flawlessly for eight minutes, and the rocket's payload reached orbit. Read more about it here, and then more about it here.
Photo: NASA
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