The Saturn V Moon rocket was a three-stage step rocket designed to launch Apollo spacecraft. The biggest launch vehicle there has ever been, the Saturn V-Apollo stack measured 111 metres from the base of the first-stage engine nozzles to the tip of the escape tower. The Saturn V was put together in the purpose-built vehicle assembly building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center, and transported some 5.5 km to the launch pad by crawler transporter. The first stage (the SIC) had five F-1 engines, which burned kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen at the rate of three tonnes every second to create three and a half thousand tonnes of thrust. The second and third stages had J-2 engines, which burned liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen. The second stage (the SII) had five engines, and the third stage (the SIVB) one engine. The Apollo spacecraft was located above the third stage. The CSM was on top, surmounted by an escape tower. Beneath the CSM was the lunar module, enclosed within a shroud called the Saturn adapter. The third stage plus spacecraft entered Earth orbit intact. Later, the third stage re-ignited to boost the spacecraft out of orbit on a looping trajectory that took it to the Moon. After the CSM had docked with the LM and withdrawn it from the Saturn adapter, the third stage was jettisoned. The final Saturn V, used to launch Skylab, used just two stages for launching the space station into low Earth orbit. The surviving Saturn Vs, now designated national monuments, can be seen at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida; the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas; and the Alabama Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
