Saturn 1B - SA-209 - On display at the Kennedy Space Center

The first piloted Saturn IB, designated SA-205, launched Apollo 7 on 11 October 1968. The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 34, located at Cape Canaveral Ai...
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The first piloted Saturn IB, designated SA-205, launched Apollo 7 on 11 October 1968. The rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 34, located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, just south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham tested the first piloted CSM in orbit for 11 days before splashing down in the North Atlantic Ocean on 22 October 1968.

The Saturn V moon rocket, the largest, most powerful rocket ever built, commands much attention, but not everyone knows that the giant had smaller, lesser-known relatives, including one that launched men into space. Had the Apollo Applications Program (AAP) gone ahead as planned in 1966, that other piloted Saturn rocket, the Saturn IB, might have become more famous that the Saturn V. The Saturn IB was a two-stage rocket. The eight H-1 engines in its Chrysler-built S-IB first stage burned liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1, a kind of kerosene used as aviation fuel. In this image, on the bottom left is one of those engines. Marvels of technology for the day - and even today!!
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