The private space company says the rocket, called Falcon Heavy, is the most powerful rocket in use today. It is not, however, bigger or more powerful than the mighty Saturn V that was used to launch the Apollo astronauts to the moon in the ’60s and ’70s and then to launch the Skylab space station in 1973.

Nine Saturn V rockets moved astronauts to the moon between 1969 and 1972, but there were three extras made — and you can still see some of the pieces today, a retired Boeing engineer says.

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SLS

The estimated cost of a Saturn V launch in today’s dollars is a whopping US$1.16 billion. Meanwhile, the upper estimate for Falcon heavy is US$90 million. That’s million with an “M.”

The Saturn V was a rocket NASA built to send people to the moon. (The V in the name is the Roman numeral five.) The Saturn V was a type of rocket called a Heavy Lift Vehicle. That means it was very powerful.

The first and second stages of the Saturn V fell back to Earth once they were spent. The third stage, known as the S-IVB, was just under 60 feet (18 meters) in length and, once released, temporarily orbited Earth along with the Apollo spacecraft before being reignited to send its hardware into lunar orbit.

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Even with the advent of commercial rockets, the Saturn V remains the tallest and most powerful rocket ever, and the only one thus far to help carry humans beyond Earth’s orbit. The last Saturn V was used to launch Skylab, America’s first space station, on May 14, 1973.

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The Saturn V rocket is still considered one of the most powerful rockets ever with approximately 3.4 million kg of thrust. If all goes to plan, Starships will be more than twice Saturn’s by packing around 7.3 million kg of thrust!

Both of these rockets were designed to carry a remarkably heavy load. And, while Saturn V is still the reigning champ when it comes to size, weight and payload, Falcon Heavy comes with some serious advantages. It’s smaller, lighter and it’s reusability means it could perform several missions for much less cost.

In 2010, NASA began developing the Space Launch System (SLS), and upon completion, it will be the most powerful rocket in history (yes, including Falcon Heavy). That means the modified RS-25 engine exceeded the absolute limit of efficiency possible when NASA built it decades ago by a whopping 13 percent.

NASA picks SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch 1st Gateway station pieces to the moon. It will be a pit stop on the way to the lunar surface. NASA recently paused its search for a human landing system, which will transport astronauts from the gateway down to the surface of the moon.

Saturn V rocket

They wanted to move on to the Space Shuttle. With the NERVA atomic thermal rocket third stage riding atop the Saturn V, Apollo hardware could have carried a mission to Mars in about three months. That’s short enough that as long as there weren’t any solar flares, etc.

They didn’t need the heavy launch capability anymore, so they stopped building and using them. They’re not just going to start building new ones because, the Saturn tech is all 50 to 60 years old. We can do a lot better now. SLS is the new generation.

Originally Answered: Could they rebuild a Saturn 5 today? It’s possible. It would require rebuilding a lot of infrastructure and re-engineering many systems to make them easier to build with today’s technology. The amount of work it would take is comparable to designing and building a new launch system.

The Saturn V was painted predominantly white to keep the craft cool as it sat on the launch pad in the hot Florida sun. Holding down the rocket’s body temperature reduced fuel boil-off and improved overall safety.

F-1 engine