Holga: April 2005 Archives

On the left in the background is the same J-2 engine I showed yesterday. On the right in the foreground is the even larger F-1 rocket engine. A single engine produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust -- as much as all three space shuttle main engines combined. Five of these huge engines generated a staggering 7.5 million pounds of thrust to power the first stage of the Saturn V moon rocket. It remains the most powerful liquid fuel engine ever developed.

In other news, I'll be out of town this weekend participating in the MS150, a bike ride from Houston to Austin benefitting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. (The photoblog will be on autopilot.) The Houston-Austin ride is the largest MS ride in the country, with 13,000 people participating this year! If you are interested in sponsoring my ride, please feel free.

Some of the plumbing for the J-2 rocket engine on display as a giant lawn ornament at Johnson Space Center. The engine produces as much as 230,000 pounds of thrust and burns liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen -- the first liquid hydrogen engine used on a manned space mission. Five of these engines powered the second stage of the Saturn V rocket (used to send men to the moon), while a single J-2 powered the third stage. It was the third stage that actually put the astronauts on a lunar trajectory.

Submitted for last week's Photo Friday topic, Plastic, because it was taken with a plastic camera. ;)