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Historic Aircraft Recovery and Preservation => Post WWII Civilian Aircraft and Spacecraft topics => Topic started by: Russ Matthews on July 23, 2013, 01:02:30 AM

Title: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
Post by: Russ Matthews on July 23, 2013, 01:02:30 AM

http://wtkr.com/2013/07/20/amazon-ceo-says-underwater-discovery-is-apollo-11-rocket-engines/

Title: Re: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
Post by: James Champion on July 23, 2013, 06:15:58 PM

I am a member of the Kansas Cosmosphere and over Labor-day weekend I visited the just-opened Apollo F-1 engine conservation exhibit where you can view the process from an observation area. Bezos has arranged for the Cosmosphere to do the 2-year cleaning and stabilization process since they have experience in this, having previously conserved, and put on display, Gus Grissom's' Mercury Liberty Bell 7 capsule after it was recovered.

Bezos may have announced that these are the Apollo 11 engines however the Cosmosphere has posted no such news.

http://www.cosmo.org/photo/photo-restore.cfm?ID=37

Title: Re: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
Post by: Gus Rubio on July 24, 2013, 12:00:08 PM

Note to self: drive to Kansas!  I would LOVE to see these babies in person, even if from a distance.  I was born in 71, at the tale end of Apollo, so I never actually experieced it first-hand.  This would be the next best thing. 

I applaude jeff Bezos for his recovery of these amazing pieces of engineering history.

Title: Re: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
Post by: James Champion on July 24, 2013, 06:26:16 PM

Correction - I saw the recovered engines over Memorial Day Weekend. The identification of the engines came up during the tour, and guide indicated conservation may take a couple years, but identifying the Apollo(s) they were used on could take longer. The engines were to last only 5 minutes. After a successful mission there was no reason to keep inspection paperwork which would carry serial numbers of the engines and sub assemblies. Most Saturn V rockets were launched on similar trajectories, the first stage was discarded at around 60 miles altitude and 8000 MPH, and would have broken-up from aerodynamic forces and heating before impacting the same keep-out-restricted-area of the ocean at 400 MPH. Furthermore, many dataplates would have been made out of stainless steel, with the engines made out of space-age Monel alloys. The Monel alloys with their high nickel content in a salt-water environment results in the stainless becoming the electrochemical sacrificial anode. They are finding a few identification numbers stamped directly in some parts but tracing those numbers to a engine number, and then to a particular mission is still an issue.