SOLVED:  The last known unidentified marking on the Saturn V S-IC.

For a hair over twenty years, I have been chasing the markings on the Saturn V.  Most have been fairly simple to figure out.  The second and third stages have well known markings and only the discovery of better period photographs would enhance that knowledge.  But the first stage or S-IC, built by Boeing, is a riddle which has resisted explanation.

Apollo 11 S-IC-6 in the transfer isle.  NASA

Boeing stenciled their part of the moon rocket extensively, using a font from their WWII bombers.  Beyond what is easy to see; i.e. the American Flag, "USA", fin letters, position markings, etc.  Boeing seemingly wanted to make sure everyone knew there was a vent or a hoist point for the fins.  The majority of these markings survived enough to be saved and cataloged by professional historians who oversaw the restoration of the remaining stages.  In some cases, the stages were cleaned and sandblasted with little regard for the original markings.  The preservation of the remaining Apollo hardware began in earnest in the mid-1990s and continues to this day.  The last production S-IC, number 15, has been moved from  the Mississippi Assembly Facility to it's new home at the Infinity Space Center where it awaits restoration. 

S-IC Boeing stencil fonts by John Pursely

I have photographed the Saturn stages in Florida Alabama and Houston, the latter being made up of all flight qualified stages.  They all shared the first stage markings before they were restored.  Now, they are clean and nice looking but each is missing markings.  Why does this matter?  It might not, except for rivet counters like me.  The most obvious marking which as been unexplained on the Saturn V is the strip or stripe just below the four position markings.  They are visible is most period photos of the stage but not in sufficient resolution to understand them.  I have studied every photo from the flight campaign as well as assembly images to no avail.  Last year, I started hunting for amateur photos from the early 1970s as a way to find a good image.  So far, nothing has turned up.

Position II of Apollo 8 S-IC with strip visible below.  NASA

Last year while photographing S-IC-15 at Infinity Science Center, I had thought I had finally found a first stage with this marking still intact.  I photographed both positions II and IV, those being the only ones visible.  The marking underneath the "IIII" marking was still there but covered with peeling paint.  The other side was much the same with nothing visible but dirt, mold and old paint.  I did my photography and returned home, hoping to glean something from the high resolution photos.  As I feared, nothing of note was visible in the images.  I resigned myself to searching for images on Ebay or perhaps in the National Archives in Atlanta, a resource I still need to visit.

Strip visible in Spring of 2017 covered in dirt and paint.

Last month (April of 2018) I joined a group of like minded Space Hipsters from the Facebook group of the same name for the yearly field trip.  I set about rephotographing things I missed on S-IC-15 as well as areas I couldn't reach on the previous visit.  I photographed the same areas on II and IIII, hoping something would reveal itself.  I examined the position IIII images upon my return and ignored the position II images since I thought the strip was missing.  I posted some images in the Saturn Rocket History group on Facebook, hoping to jog someone's memory about the marking.  Here is where it gets interesting, if you haven't already fallen asleep.  Richard Lobinske replied to my post with some images of his own, with better detail.  Naturally, since I was only looking at the marking below Pos IIII, I didn't see anything I could identify.  Fast forward to today and I am passing the time waiting for an appointment, looking at images hoping to find something.  Today I did.  I looked for the first time at Richard's image of the position II area and zoomed in on it.  There was something there!  I looked at my own images of the area from last month and it was in my photos too, just not as clear.  Below is a zoomed in crop of the strip under the Position II marking.  Apparently, over the last year, the stage was cleaned or maybe the weather and rain moved the old paint off of it.  It almost looks as though someone wiped it off.

We had always suspected that it was an alignment marking of some sort and now we know.  Notice that it is reversed.  This could be due to the alignment tool using an odd number of mirrors.  The reversed mark would look correct through the instrument if this is the case.

Success!!  Richard Lobinske photo.

Finally, I have found that Holy Grail that has eluded me and others in the Space Modeling community.  Thanks to Richard for sending me those images.  Now on to the next impossible discovery!!

--John Duncan

Why do I waste my time on details or "you are too focused on things that don't matter to anyone".

Gotta have a badge to get in!

My website, www.apollosaturn.com, is in it's twenty-first year and continues to serve a small cadre of details obsessed modelers, the vast majority of whom I have never met in person.  Not all are modelers, some are just interested in all things Saturn V.  When I started this journey in early 1997, I had no idea it would still be around today.  

The nagging details of the Saturn V still captivate me after all this time.  In the old days, when the internet was like the wild west, we discussed such things in groups like sci.space. history on Usenet.  What's that you ask? Google it, youngster.  The online resources for such things were few and far between, the first Saturn V related website I found was Chuck Corway's "Saturn V Launch Vehicle Homepage", now living in the Internet Archive.

I soon realized that the only way to find the detail information I craved was to go to the source: The Historical Archives at the Kennedy Space Center Library.  This I did five or six times, throwing a visit to Pad A and the OPFs for good measure.  I eventually tracked down most of the obvious details and as the internet grew in complexity and participation, there was a group of us who worried over the font used here and which camera targets were on which mission.

Me underneath Discovery.

The internet is a fantastic place, scary, but fantastic.  Facebook, for all it's ills, has become a magnet for high quality groups focusing on various segments of space flight history, past, present and future.  The ones geared towards the past have surpassed what I was able to gather in regards to photos and documents and so my website focuses now on images of the details of remaining equipment.  I guess you could say we have crowd sourced the history of Apollo and it's turning out really good.

From time to time I post questions in the applicable groups about details I have yet to work out.  These are admittedly very specific and most have no idea what I am pointing out in some blurry video capture image or blown up old photo.  This stuff is what keeps me interested.  I always get a few guesses, some very good and probably close to the answer.  But I crave photographic evidence of things.  If I only had a time machine....

Recent photo of mystery item.

The number one most wanted item for me currently is the horizontal stripe under the Position Numbers on the Saturn V S-IC first stage.  It's barely visible and never in focus in photos from the Apollo era.  I have tried for years to figure this one out with no success.  So now I ask periodically in Facebook groups, providing an old photo and a recent photo. 

Just the other day I posted another plea and got good guess and offers of help, but I got something else too, "...you are too obsessed with a detail uninteresting to the universe at large."  Wow, suddenly history is not interesting?  Have I gone over the edge in my search for the tiniest details?

If this particular person is a "millennial" I can understand it.  The majority of this age group really either hates history or completely ignores it at their own peril.

I have decided to take the comment as sarcasm, even though it may not be.

I have been at this detail search longer than the Enterprise's five year mission and I will continue.  Without historians digging out the dusty cobwebs of history, we can not come to conclusions about the past.  History teaches us new things everyday and gives us insight into events past and future.  Don't abandon it kids, or the future might smack you in the face with the past.

John Duncan

First Look: Inter-culture 1/144th scale Launch Umbilical Tower for the Saturn V

Saturn V- NASA

One of the grail items for a builder of spacecraft and rocket models has often been the Launch Umbilical Tower.  This gargantuan device was used to transport the Saturn V rocket from the assembly building to the launch pad.

Until recently, the only large scale model available was the mostly photo-etch kit by the now defunct Launch Complex Models.   Approximately 20 kits were produced, one of which I own.  I have not started it yet since I don't have the room to tackle a large photoetch kit like that one- yet.

Back in 2010, the Inter-Culture kit was announced.  It's not known how many have been purchased as the high cost probably makes the purchaser feel guilty.  It did this writer.

This "kit" comes in ten large assemblies which stack together to form the launcher.  When inspected under magnification, the sub-assemblies were grown in a 3D printer.  At first, I thought they were in many pieces and glued together into the sections but this is not the case.  Amazingly, these assemblies are almost all one grown piece.  The white ECS piping, service arms and elevator shaft is separate and that is it.  The platform is structurally one piece with the exhaust hole and elevator base separate pieces.

When I decided to purchase this kit on that auction site, I was expecting something but not this.  The provided photos gave some hints at the detail included.  I guess I was throwing caution to the wind.  I can say now that I am not disappointed.  The tower has plenty of details, including the frame work under each floor and equipment boxes on the levels.  The service arms are very close to the prototypes and beg for super detailing.

This one came with paint though it's not accurate.  It was also available in raw white.  This is not a problem since I would be detailing it and repainting it anyway.

As for scale, it isn't perfect.  It is supposed to be 1/144th scale and it does achieve that in most cases.  It is under or over scale by a few inches here and there.  The kit is sized for the Bandai Tamashii Nations Apollo 11 and Saturn V Launch Vehicle and looks really good with it.  The service arms line up fairly well although arms 3 and 4 are switched on my example.  Easy to fix as the arms are not permanently mounted.

The platform is generally good but probably the weak link detail-wise.  It is one piece with printed inserts.

So, what now?  This kit just screams for super, no, hyper detailing.  I have wanted a kit like this for a long time.  There are so many details to be added that it probably never be finished, if I wanted to go crazy.  But there things like the wiring trunks, final ECS piping, service arm interfaces, tailservice masts, etc, which would be the first things to be added.  New Ware models offers the masts and hold down arm details as a kit already!  This will be a journey, one I am ready to embark on.  Stay tune for progress as I plan the up grades. First up will be painting the elevator shaft to correct color.

Edit:  This kit was $2000 on Ebay.  The price is listed elsewhere at nearly $3000.  I do not know if this kit is still available.

-John Duncan

www.apollosaturn.com

The Saturn V: The Facilities Verification Vehicle 500F

On May 25, 1966 the first stacked Saturn V rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and proceeded at the breakneck pace of 1 mph to Pad A of Launch Complex 39.  It was designated AS-500F.

The mission: to verify the Launch Umbilical Tower/Mobile Launcher interfaces as well as the hardstand at the pad.  Tanking tests involving the loading of super cold liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen as well as room temperature  kerosene propellants would occur under pad conditions for the first time.

However, AS-500F had a secret mission too.  One that would not be revealed until years later.  The much photographed first stack would set the appearance for millions of toys, model kits, posters, and dog chew toys for decades, even when just a few minutes of research would show that the actual flying versions were different.

It is true that originally, NASA had mapped out the markings slightly different than what Apollo 4 displayed when clearing the tower.  The intertank of the first stage or S-IC was to have black stripes continuing from the RP-1 tank and around the top third of it's circumference.  But workers found that the temperatures were extreme under the baking Florida sun and plans were quickly made to paint over those areas with white paint.  This was done on Apollo 4 and 6, and explains the sightly mismatched white on the intertank.  Conventional paint rollers were employed to do this.

Further, the S-IC did not have the American Flag on the LOX tank, something that was sort of a oddity as the flag was not visible after tanking due to the ice which formed on the exterior.  Only when empty or as it rumbled upon takeoff was the flag visible.

The other major oddity was the S-IVB or third stage.  It was actually the second stage from the AS-200F or Saturn IB verification vehicle.  The markings there were partially correct for the Saturn Ib as the aft skirt was correct for some versions.  The forward area with the huge squares of black spaced around the forward skirt and tank were from concept art and didn't make it to a flight vehicle.

Lastly, the black ring with camera targets on the Service Module are unique to 500F.

So, why do a vocal minority sigh and roll eyes when photos or references to 500F appear?  It's not that they hate on it like a Skylab mutiny story but rather it's the fatigue of model companies, publishers and movie people refusing to google "Apollo 11 rocket".

Monogram and Airfix model companies in the late sixties produced Saturn V kits from these first photographs of 500F.  It's amazing that decades later, they reissue the kits with shiny new box art still referring to the old paint job, inaccurate for any flying version.  The instruction booklets are still incorrect as well.  I will give kudos to Airfix for releasing their kit with a properly scaled Apollo Spacecraft to replace the underscale version in the original kit.  Monogram, now Revell, has never done this.

Then there is the movie Apollo 13, which all space buffs, historians and Hipster love because it's OUR movie.  Dang it if they didn't nearly replicate the 500F scheme on in the Saturn V launch sequence!  Still a great movie but couldn't they have asked just one nerdy space nut about that marking pattern?  I guess not.

The 500F paint scheme is part of history and the vehicle that wore it represented our dreams for a flight to the moon.  In a difficult time in our country's history it was a hopeful contrast to other less happy events.  But sloppy research and a reluctance to accurately replicate the outward appearance of the one rocket in history (so far) that took us to the moon is disappointing.  So when we see restaurant menus adorned with 500F and new toys painted likewise, allow us to shed a tear for lack of research or just not caring about our favorite launch vehicle.