S-IVB

The S-IVB was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth orbit insertion after second stage cutoff, and then for translunar injection (TLI).

S-IVB
S-IVB-206 which was used for the Skylab 2 flight
ManufacturerDouglas
Country of originUSA
Used on
General characteristics
Height17.81 m (58 ft, 5 in)
Diameter6.60 m (21 ft, 8 in)
Gross mass271,000 pounds (123,000 kg)
Propellant mass241,300 lb (109,000 kg)
Empty mass29,700 lb (13,500 kg)
Launch history
StatusRetired
Total launches21
Successes
(stage only)		20
OtherRestart failure (Apollo 6)
First flightFebruary 26, 1966
Last flightJuly 15, 1975
S-IVB 200 series
Engines1 J-2
Thrust200,000 pounds-force (890,000 N)
Specific impulse420 s (4.1 km/s)
Burn time480 s
FuelLH2 / LOX
S-IVB 500 series
Engines1 J-2
Thrust232,250 pounds-force (1,033,100 N)
Specific impulse421 s (4.13 km/s)
Burn time500 s
FuelLH2 / LOX

History

The S-IVB evolved from the upper stage of the Saturn I rocket, the S-IV, and was the first stage of the Saturn V to be designed. The S-IV used a cluster of six engines but used the same fuels as the S-IVB — liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It was also originally meant to be the fourth stage of a planned rocket called the C-4, hence the name S-IV.

Eleven companies submitted proposals for being the lead contractor on the stage by the deadline of 29 February 1960. NASA administrator T. Keith Glennan decided on 19 April that Douglas Aircraft Company would be awarded the contract. Convair had come a close second but Glennan did not want to monopolize the liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket market as Convair was already building the Centaur rocket stage.

In the end the Marshall Space Flight Center decided to use the C-5 rocket (later called the Saturn V), which had three stages and would be topped with an uprated S-IV called the S-IVB which instead of using a cluster of engines would have a single J-2 engine. Douglas was awarded the contract for the S-IVB because of the similarities between it and the S-IV. At the same time it was decided to create the C-IB rocket (Saturn IB) that would also use the S-IVB as its second stage and could be used for testing the Apollo spacecraft in Earth orbit.

Configuration

Douglas built two distinct versions of the S-IVB, the 200 series and the 500 series. The 200 series was used by the Saturn IB and differed from the 500 in that it did not have a flared interstage and it had less helium pressurization on board since it did not have to be restarted. In the 500 series, the interstage needed to flare out to match the larger diameter of the S-IC and S-II stages of the Saturn V. The 200 series also had three solid rockets for separating the S-IVB stage from the S-IB stage during launch. On the 500 series this was reduced to two, and two small APS (auxiliary propulsion system) thruster modules were added as ullage motors for restarting the J-2 engine and to provide attitude control during coast phases of flight.

Cutaway drawing of the Saturn V S-IVB

The S-IVB carried 73,280 litres (19,360 US gal) of LOX, massing 87,200 kilograms (192,200 lb). It carried 252,750 litres (66,770 US gal) of LH2, massing 18,000 kilograms (40,000 lb). Empty mass was 10,000 kilograms (22,000 lb)[1][2]

Attitude control was provided by J-2 engine gimbaling during powered flight and by the two APS modules during coast. Auxiliary Propulsion System Modules were used for three-axis control during coast phases, roll control during J-2 firings, and ullage for the second ignition of the J-2 engine.[1][2] Each APS module contained two 150 pounds-force (670 N) thrusters providing thrust for roll and pitch, another 150 pounds-force (670 N) thruster for yaw, and one 70 pounds-force (310 N) thruster for ullage. Each module contained its own propellant tanks of 150 pounds (68 kg) dinitrogen tetroxide and 115 pounds (52 kg) monomethyl hydrazine as well as compressed helium to pressurize its propellants.[3]

A surplus S-IVB tank, serial number 212, was converted into the hull for the Skylab, the first American space station. Skylab was launched on a Saturn V on May 14, 1973, and it eventually reentered the atmosphere on July 11, 1979. A second S-IVB, serial number 515, was also converted into a backup Skylab, but this one never flew.

During the missions of Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17, the S-IVB stages were crashed into the Moon to perform seismic measurements used for characterizing the lunar interior.

Stages built
200 Series
Serial number Use Launch date Current location
S-IVB-S "Battleship" static test stage Never flew
S-IVB-F Test stage for the facilities Never flew
S-IVB-D "Dynamic" test stage delivered to Marshall Space Flight Center in 1965 Never flew U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama 34°42′38″N 86°39′27″W
S-IVB-T Cancelled December 1964 Never flew
S-IVB-201 AS-201 February 26, 1966 Suborbital test; impacted Atlantic Ocean at 9.6621S, 10.0783E[4]
S-IVB-202 AS-202 August 25, 1966 Suborbital test; impacted Atlantic Ocean[5]
S-IVB-203 AS-203 July 5, 1966 Exploded in orbit during bulkhead test at end of mission; debris decayed
S-IVB-204 Apollo 5 (originally intended for Apollo 1) January 22, 1968 Launched LM-1 into low Earth orbit for uncrewed test; decayed
S-IVB-205 Apollo 7 October 11, 1968 Decayed from low Earth orbit
S-IVB-206 Skylab 2 May 25, 1973 Decayed from low Earth orbit
S-IVB-207 Skylab 3 July 28, 1973 Decayed from low Earth orbit
S-IVB-208 Skylab 4 November 16, 1973 Decayed from low Earth orbit
S-IVB-209 Skylab rescue vehicle Never flew Kennedy Space Center
S-IVB-210 Apollo Soyuz Test Project July 15, 1975 Decayed from low Earth orbit
S-IVB-211 Unused Never flew U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama
S-IVB-212 Converted to Skylab May 14, 1973 Re-entered Earth's atmosphere on July 11, 1979
500 Series
Serial number Use Launch date Current location
S-IVB-501 Apollo 4 November 9, 1967 J-2 restart during first uncrewed Saturn V flight test placed S-IVB and spacecraft on earth-intersecting trajectory; impacted Pacific Ocean at 23.435N, 161.207E.
S-IVB-502 Apollo 6 April 4, 1968 Second uncrewed Saturn V flight test. J-2 restart failed due to damage from pogo oscillation of previous stages; decayed from low Earth orbit
S-IVB-503 Destroyed during testing Never flew
S-IVB-503N Apollo 8 December 21, 1968 Heliocentric orbit
S-IVB-504 Apollo 9 March 3, 1969 Heliocentric orbit
S-IVB-505 Apollo 10 May 18, 1969 Heliocentric orbit
S-IVB-506 Apollo 11 July 16, 1969 Heliocentric orbit
S-IVB-507 Apollo 12 November 14, 1969 Heliocentric orbit; believed to have been discovered as an asteroid in 2002 and given the designation J002E3
S-IVB-508 Apollo 13 April 11, 1970 Impacted lunar surface April 14, 1970*[6][7]
S-IVB-509 Apollo 14 January 31, 1971 Lunar surface*
S-IVB-510 Apollo 15 July 26, 1971 Lunar surface*
S-IVB-511 Apollo 16 April 16, 1972 Lunar surface*
S-IVB-512 Apollo 17 December 7, 1972 Lunar surface*
S-IVB-513 Apollo 18 (cancelled) Never flew Johnson Space Center
S-IVB-514 Apollo 19 (cancelled) Never flew Kennedy Space Center
S-IVB-515 Apollo 20 (cancelled), later converted to Skylab B Never flew National Air and Space Museum

(* See List of artificial objects on the Moon for location.)

Derivatives

The second stage of the Ares I rocket and the proposed Earth Departure Stage (EDS) would have had some of the characteristics of the S-IVB stage, as both would have had an uprated J-2 engine, called the J-2X, with the latter performing the same functions as that of the Series 500 version of the stage (placing the payload into orbit, and later firing the spacecraft into trans-lunar space).

The MS-IVB was a proposed modification of the S-IVB that would have been used on a Mars flyby, but it was never produced.[8]

See also

References
  1. "SP-4206 Stages to Saturn". NASA. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012.
  2. "Saturn S-IVB". apollosaturn. Archived from the original on 19 September 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  3. "Saturn S-IVB APSM". herocirelics. Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  4. "Results of the First Saturn IB Launch Vehicle Test Flight AS-201", NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 6 May 1966, MPR-SAT-FE-66-8. Page 43, Table 7-IV.
  5. AS-202 Press Kit Archived 2003-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Satellite catalog
  7. LROC page
  8. Portree, David S. F. (2001). Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950-2000. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. pp. 26–27.
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