F-1 Rocket Engine Inner-Dome Attach Bolt

The Rocket Center was a recipient of some of the F-1 rocket engine parts which were recovered from the Atlantic ocean. In addition to larger, easily-identifiable objects (such as a thrust chamber), they also received several boxes of smaller, assorted hardware, much of it difficult to identify.

However, I did recognize an inner-dome attach bolt, having previously photographed one at the Cosmosphere's SpaceWorks facility while the recovered F-1 engines were undergoing conservation.

Sixteen inner-dome attach bolts were used to help secure the LOX dome to the injector.

The bolts sat in recessed holes on the LOX dome forward face which were then covered by dome sealing plugs. The bolts penetrated through the LOX dome, protected by cylidrical sleeves with conical bases, and seated in threaded holes on the injector's forward face.

I visited the recovered F-1 engine parts in December 2013, early in the conservation process. The lead conservator told me that, when the dome sealing plugs were removed from the LOX domes, the bolts were in pristine condition, with the grease still present on the bolts.