Recovered: Apollo Moon Mission Rocket Engines

Amazon CEO recovers Apollo engines from Atlantic 

Thu, 03/21/2013 - 8:54am

Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer

In this image provided by Bezos Expeditions, workers inspect a thrust chamber of an Apollo F-1 engine recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in March 2013. An expedition led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pulled up two rocket engines, including this one, that helped boost Apollo astronauts to the moon. Bezos and NASA announced the recovery on Wednesday, March 19, 2013. The sunken engines were part of the Saturn V rocket used to bring astronauts to the moon during the 1960s and 1970s. After liftoff, they fell into the ocean as planned. AP Photo/Bezos ExpeditionsLOS ANGELES (AP)—Rusted pieces of two Apollo-era rocket engines that helped boost astronauts to the moon have been fished out of the murky depths of the Atlantic, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and the U.S. space agency NASA said.

A privately funded expedition led by Bezos raised the main engine parts during three weeks at sea and was headed back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, the launch pad for the manned lunar missions.

"We've seen an underwater wonderland—an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end," Bezos wrote in an online posting Wednesday.

Last year, the Bezos team used sonar to spot the sunken engines resting nearly 3 miles (5 km) deep in the Atlantic and 360 miles (579 km) from Cape Canaveral. At the time, the Internet mogul said the artifacts were part of the Apollo 11 mission that gave the world "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Bezos now says it's unclear which Apollo mission the recovered engines belonged to because the serial numbers were missing or hard to read on the corroded pieces. NASA is helping trace the hardware's origin.

Apollo astronauts were launched aboard the mighty Saturn V rocket during the 1960s and 1970s. Each rocket had a cluster of five engines. After liftoff, the engines—each weighing 18,000 pounds (8,166 kg)—fell to the ocean as designed, with no plans to retrieve them.

More - Link >>> http://www.rdmag.com/news/2013/03/amazon-ceo-recovers-apollo-engines-atlantic?et_cid=3152513&et_rid=544605860&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fnews%2f2013%2f03%2famazon-ceo-recovers-apollo-engines-atlantic

Sources: The Associated Press, R&D Magazine.

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