Xref: utzoo sci.space:4493 sci.space.shuttle:516
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!hogg
From: hogg@csri.toronto.edu (John Hogg)
Subject: Re:  Saturn V takeoff
Message-ID: <1988Feb4.164741.6228@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <7049@ihlpa.ATT.COM>
Date: Thu, 4-Feb-88 16:47:41 EST

In article <7049@ihlpa.ATT.COM> animal@ihlpa.ATT.COM (D. Starr) writes:
>A while ago, somebody asked how long it took a Saturn V to clear the launch
>tower.  I had an opportunity to time it just the other night when the PBS
>series "Television" re-ran the original network feed from the Apollo 11
>launch.  From this program it looks like about six and a half seconds pass
>between the word "liftoff" and the first stage fins passing the crane at
>the top of the tower, a distance of about 400 feet...

According to the book ``Project Apollo'' (published 1971, original edition
1969) the time to clear the tower is greater than 20 seconds.  That may
well be starting from ignition; the context concerned the mechanism by which
the upper service booms retract into their shields before five F-1 engines
at full power come past.

Let's see... at 15 tons/sec, that's about 300 tons of fuel to go the first
~450 feet.  Working this out in my head, the initial milage is order-of-
magnitude 200,000,000 l/100km.  Of course, it gets better if you average
over the whole trip...
-- 
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