OT: The Space Race BBC2

Martin, I think you would enjoy a visit to "La Cupola" just off St.Omer in France. This was a V2 launch site but was bombed by the RAF before it could operate. The reason why I mention this is because, as you are no doubt aware, the V2 was designed by a team led by Victor Von Braun. Von Braun spearheaded the development of the American space programme resulting in the Saturn V rocket. Notwithstanding Von Braun's political stance during WWI, I believe, when aged 27, he designed an engine 25 times more efficient than had been designed before. Ian.

Having lived through those most stirring times leading to little more than a long, drawn out disappointment - we should have been on Mars in 1986! - I watched the series with great interest. As usual, the technical differences between the high technology of the West and the brute power of the Russians are what fascinate. Whilst the relatively light weight Saturn Five had five engines, the equivalent Russian ship had 32 engines, all of which had to work properly to achieve orbit!

With main fuel tank walls just sixty thou thick, the first stage would collapse under its own weight if not kept full of pressurised gas from the moment of manufacture until it was thrown away over the Atlantic. IIRC, the Saturn Five remains the most complicated mechanical device ever built. At launch, 99% reliability would result in 300+ parts malfunctioning ...........

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

I once had the pleasure (?) of doing a consultancy job for Lockheed Martin (previously Loral and before that IBM Federal Systems) who had accumulated an unseemly quantity of ex-NASA personnel. One day, upon remarking on their apparent ineptitude, I asked "how in god's name did you b*****ds ever put a man on the moon"!? (it was apparent that a p*ss-up in a brewery would have been beyond their organisational capabilities). Their only response was that 'if you keep pumping green-backs into a project, eventually you will succeed'. If that had been this country, Gordon Brown would have gone into melt-down! (something I'd rather like to witness as I'm currently going through hell and back trying to make another of feeble brain child's work:))

Mark

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That was the Atlas, not the Saturn V. Atlas was the first ICBM and also used for the Mercury orbital launches.

(Although having just run the numbers, it would only have taken 5psi to make a Saturn V minimally self-supporting, which I thought was a surprisingly small figure)

Wright Patterson AFB museum had an Atlas on display for some years and used to dress it up as Santa for Xmas. Corrosion around the rivets took its toll though and it developed a slow puncture. One Monday morning the staff turned up to find it had literally deflated and crumpled into a heap!