F-1 Engine (Building 4205)

When I toured MSFC in fall of 2008, I noticed a fairly nice-looking F-1 (along with a nozzle extension and spare F-1 engine nozzle extension handling fixture).

The engine was next to Building 4205 (according to the itinerary we received; the southwest corner of the building also has a "4205" sign, although the southeast corner had a "4211" sign), also known as the Propulsion Development and Research Lab (according to the tour guide). The building housed a plywood and PVC pipe full-scale mockup of the Ares I frustum, interstage, and aft end of the second stage; the mockup is used to verify that the components can be serviced in the VAB or on the pad. After the tour guide was done giving his presentation, I excused myself and photographed the F-1.

This is F-1 engine serial number F-4023; the nozzle extension is from F-5034. Alan Lawrie tells me that F-4023 was originally installed on Apollo 8 (S-IC-3) and underwent static firing with that stage. The stage was delivered to KSC for launch but the engine failed a later test and was removed in May 1968.

At that time, Alan was attempting to identify and locate the remaining F-1 rocket engines. Excited that I reported this engine's location, Alan collaborated with Robert Pearlman (of collectSPACE) to write an article about the engine. Entitled "Engine That Almost Launched Apollo 8 Moonshot Found 40 Years Later," a "teaser" version appeared on the front page of Space.com; the full story ran on collectSPACE.

The nozzle extension displayed nearby is from F-5034. This engine was the spare engine assigned to S-IC-5 (from Apollo 10). F-5036, originally installed in the stage, was removed and F-5034 was installed in its place; F-5034 ultimately went on to power the Apollo 10 mission. During the swap-out, the crew apparently retained F-5036's nozzle extension and installed it on F-5034, leaving F-5034's extension behind for us to enjoy today.

Some time circa October 2009, this engine and nozzle extension were mated and erected as a display in front of a building at Marshall.