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Author Topic: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11  (Read 12505 times)

James Champion

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Re: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
« Reply #1 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
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Gus Rubio

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Re: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
« Reply #2 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.
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James Champion

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Re: Report: Recovered F-1 Rocket Engines Came from Apollo 11
« Reply #3 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.
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