Saturn Project Fact Sheet: A Look at the World's Largest Rocket, 1961-04-13

Saturn is the world's largest known rocket, developed by NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It will be capable of sending payloads into orbit around the Earth, to the Moon, and into deep space. There are different versions of Saturn in progress, with the first version consisting of three stages. The Saturn C-1 rocket will have a liftoff weight of about 500 tons. The Saturn program has scheduled ten launchings for research and development, with the first launching in 1961. The Saturn C-1 rocket will be able to place payloads of about 10 tons into low Earth orbits, while the C-2 rocket will be capable of orbiting payloads of 45,000 pounds and conducting missions such as lunar soft landings and planetary probes. Plans for transportation and recovery of the Saturn S-I after launching are also being considered to reduce costs.