Customer Reviews

Saturn V - America's Apollo Moon Rocket

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just received my copy and I am very pleased! BUT, do watch your expectations. This is not a regular book. It is a ring-bound collation of single-sided photocopied pages, much like a cheap user guide for a computer or something. It really deserves 3 stars at best, objectively, but *subjectively* I give it 5 stars because I too, have found nothing else like it on the market and I just love the minutiae of details that this publication gives you. I also give it 5 stars partly to encourage everyone even half-technically interested in the Apollo era to buy this tantalizing publication in the hope that it encourages the current publisher, or a competitor, to publish a *properly* bound book with *contemporary* quality scanned photographs -- perhaps the saddest problem in the current edition is the ~72dpi ~16-level grayscale "photographs". The line diagrams generally are ok, but the photos look like they've been faxed! Manage your expectations, but buy the book anyway. You'll love it!

This is perhaps the best technical description of the Saturn V available in print. It is therefore worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the construction of the booster. For modellers it tells you what each of the moulded doors and umbilical connection points are on the kits on the market (such as the Smithsonian model available via Amazon). For historians it places in our hands an original text supplied to journalists at the time of the moon landings and test and preparation flights. The detail in the text fully underlines the complexity of the rocket itself, but also the launch and flight procedures. It cannot but enhance the appreciation of the engineering skills of the designers, builders and operators of the Saturn V. There are several problems with the book. Firstly the text is not consistently paginated - and it does not have a comprehensive contents page. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly many of the photographs, and more particularly the really important cut-away diagrams have reproduced really badly - this really does spoil the book's effectiveness. Finally, it would have been nice to read a history of the reproduced text, when it was first issued, to whom and by whom to enable readers to contextualise it. Otherwise a very creditable work and extremely useful.

My fondest memories as a young boy are of watching the huge Saturn V blast off and rise slowly from its pad. I was fascinated by Dr. von Braun's creation. (I was always worried, though, that the beast would blow up.) I read everything I could find about the rocket. The most informative stuff was in a Sunday newspaper insert which I think was sponsored by an Apollo contractor. I was never satisfied, though, and I was disappointed by the TV commentary of reporters like Walter Cronkite. Now, decades later, this rather unusual book by World Spaceflight News gives Saturn fans like me the chance to read the actual NASA reference material that guys like Cronkite had (but never seemed to use). The cutaway sketches and drawings of the stages and engines are incredible. The text answers many old questions. (It even describes the camera that took those famous nifty photos of the stage separation with the earth in the background.) Like the TV we had back then, all the photos are black & white, and some are a bit fuzzy. There are no page numbers, either. Overall, it is the best book around about the Saturn rocket, and definately worth buying.

It was a sad day when the politicians killed the Saturn V program. I doubt we'll ever see anything like it again.

I was VERY disappointed with the 'quality' of how this expensive book was thrown together. A loose-leaf binder with an inkjet page glued on the front of the binder containing only photocopied pages of which NOT MANY of the diagrams were even viewable! I bought this book for scale information and the hard-to-find diagrams, most of which I could not even see....

Can you say "rip-off?" That's about what this book is. This is nothing more than a bunch of badly photocopied reprints of a couple of NASA publications relating to the Saturn V, with a little bit of prefatory text so that the publishers can claim some degree of ownership. One might argue that the NASA Mission Reports are no better, but at least in that case the publishers endeavor to give value for the money: The books are nicely bound, contain color photographs on quality paper, and include CDs with additional material.

This book, on the other hand, is photocopied single-sided (!), bound (if you can call it that) in a three-ring binder, and costs almost as much as three Mission Reports. I don't think the reproduction is even actual-sized but is somewhat reduced, making many of the diagrams almost unreadable.

That being said, I was interested in the various facts and figures and construction elements of the Saturn V, particularly the various diagrams of the stages and of the engines. So it wasn't a complete waste. However, I could only recommend this book to someone who really, really wants to know the nitty-gritty details about the Saturn V. It's a waste for anyone else, and even those who fit this description will not be happy with the price or the production quality of this book.

A bit of a disappointment...photocopied black-and-white pages in a looseleaf binder. Sure, there is some good information here but no color photographs and even some of the photocopied pages were not very good...it should have been priced at $8 to $10 rather than the $35 that I paid...I must say I'm a bit embarassed to admit that I paid that price...even more embarassed that I didn't demand my money back...oh well, I'm a sucker for space-stuff. I'll just be more careful next time.

This excellent reference material is certainly one of the best publications I have seen to date for those of us who wish to learn about the "nuts & bolts " of the Apollo Saturn V rocket. I have been waiting for this material for years and would certainly recommend it to those of us who are technically minded. A great buy.

An invaluable and indispensable reference work on the Saturn V rocket! Until this reproduction came along, the best available book on the Saturn program was STAGES TO SATURN, a NASA history authored by Roger Bilstein. Bilstein's work remains unrivalled in its description of the long and difficult path from the concept of the five-engine monster to its unbelievably successful use in the Apollo and Skylab programs. However, STAGES provided only minimal information about the rocket itself, and contained few informative illustrations. On the other hand, this World Spaceflight News book - based mainly on the SATURN V NEWS REFERENCE available to the privileged few at the time of the Apollo missions - provides a wealth of detail and great technical illustrations about the rocket. Bilstein even cites the NEWS REFERENCE in his "Sources and Research Material" section. Regarding the document that forms the basis for this book, Bilstein writes that it is

[an] invaluable reference for understanding the Saturn launch vehicles [is] NASA - MSFC, SATURN V NEWS REFERENCE (1968). Produced by MSFC in cooperation with the major Saturn contractors, this three-ring loose-leaf volume illustrates essential Saturn systems, subsystems, components, and miscellaneous hardware. The accompanying text describes, in semitechnical terms, the function and operation of a bewildering array of Saturn hardware. As a means of grasping the complexities of the Saturn launch vehicle and the essentials of the different stages, including tankage, engines, and guidance, [it is] indispensable.

I couldn't agree more. All Saturn enthusiasts should own this book.

Fantastic Apollo information - highly recommended!

Wow! Kudos to World Spaceflight News for coming up with these great Apollo documents! For discovering the nitty-gritty technical details of the Apollo moon program spacecraft, these books are absolutely unbeatable. None of the glossy picture books and autobiographies from the last 30 years explain the inner workings of Apollo like these original NASA references.

Every page is clearly printed, and there are A TON OF SPECTACULAR schematics and similar drawings. There are some muddy black and white old-style photographs, but luckily most of the "illustrations" are drawings! I found that everything (text and drawings) was legible and understandable.

You won't compare this to a finely bound volume from a major publisher - but hey, this is the only way to get this "geeky" information. As a lifelong Apollo fanatic, I'm happy to get this material however it comes. I've searched the web for many hours, and I never found this book or anything like it on any website. It is, as they say, unique. Period.

If you love Apollo - you want this book. In fact, you want all three (Saturn V, Lunar Module, Command Module) volumes. Highly recommended!

This edition should be rated 4 stars for its contents, while the layout needs some comment. Really, the iussue is just a good presentation, but a deeper analysis of the missile requires accesses to an enormous amount of documents available only at manufacturer's databank or universities' libraries. So, keeping these facts in mind, the reader finds plenty of diagrams, schematics, charts and systems technical description well worth the price. The written part deals with design evolution then, for each stage, it relates details such as plumbing, tanks, structures, umbelicals fittings, engine components, instruments units and, finally, production, assembly plus launch facilities.

Since rocket theory is well examined by many books (a good benchmark work is Sutton's Rocket Propulsion Elements), this report is a pratical complement for curious undergraduate students or highly educated (in science) space buffs.

The other side of the coin refers to the volume format. Actually it should earn a value of merit of 2/3 stars because it is not a anastatic reprint but a very good photocopy in a ring binder, giving, lets say, a "professional look" to your bookshelf. Consequently, if you like an elagant tome in the rack, this is not the case.