[AR] Re: SpaceX F9 Launch/Update -- Live Link
- From: Derek Lyons <fairwater@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 20:44:48 -0800
On Dec 27, 2015 8:30 PM, "David McMIllan" <skyefire@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yeah. The "Space Rocket History" podcast (quite worth a listen,
IMO) goes into quite a bit of detail on this subject during one "arc". I
was amazed to hear just how early the first dev contracts for (what became)
the F-1 and the Saturn were signed -- several months *before* JFK's "we
choose to go to the moon" speech.
F1 development started (on spec, by the USAF) in *1955* - years before
Kennedy even took office.
The entire time that Mercury was trying to get off the ground, the critical
elements of the Saturn/Apollo stack were already being worked on
concurrently, and absorbing the lessons learned from Mercury and Gemini as
they went.
The major specs for Apollo were set while Mercury was flying - and
considerably before Gemini was conceived. This would come back and bite
them in the ass in several ways.
Not to mention the Apollo under development wasn't the Apollo we know...
It was at times a general earth orbiter or itself a lunar landing vehicle.
This too would bite them in the butt later. (Among others, the dead end
path of the Block I CSM.)
D.
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