More NASA stuff

The Saturn V was an engineering and technological marvel. Some of the challenges they had to overcome were daunting. They had do ensure each individual engine ignited within milliseconds or the vehicle would have heeled over. The engines were so powerful that it requirted so much reinforcement in the fuel tanks that they would have been too heavy to launch. It took tremendous engineering skill to construct a tank that could overcome the inertia of the enourmous fluid mass of fuel that was being virtually instantly accelerated. otherwise, the fuel would have torn right out of the tanks.
The Saturn V was the fastest vehicle in the world from a dead stop to 100,000 feet. It was only surpassed decades later by a US fighter jet stripped bare for the purpose. They looked slow coming off the pad, but once they got going, they hauled a$$. This is my favorite- the Saturn V was the second-loudest man-made noise ever generated. The first was the atomic bomb. It was so much louder than expected, it knocked the ceiling tiles out of the TV broadcast booth 4 miles away.
 
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The Saturn V weighed about 6.5 million pounds and the first stage alone had 8 million pounds of thrust. Just shy of 1.25:1 TWR, while an F-22 fighter is about 1.05:1 and and F-15 is about 1.15:1. It's tough to draw a fair comparison to a top fuel dragster, which has intial acceleration far in excess of something that weighs as much as a navy destroyer, 32 thousand tons. But between 300 and 30,000 mph, the saturn walks away from the dragster ;)
 
But between 300 and 30,000 mph, the saturn walks away from the dragster ;)

Like a 47 apache against my 20 larson in 8-10s!

The sheer size and speed a space ship is simply mind boggling! Being an astronaut is still probably the coolest job in the world because so few have been to space.
 
Nope. I kid you not. 37 million horsepower.

The fuel pumps alone require 70,000 horsepower just to pump the fuel fast enough.

With 37,000,000 HP even an Apache could go fast:sifone:

You know you're the biggest swinging dik when you need 70,000 HP just to run your fuel pumps!
 
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