BLAST OFF – EXPLOSIONS during APOLLO

The above picture is of an Atlas Rocket exploding. No one took pictures of actual explosions of Saturn V Stages as far as I know.

During the testing of the stages of the Saturn V rocket, there were unfortunately mishaps. These mishaps were nasty explosions due to bad fuel, the wrong welding material and good old human error. Most of the explosions occurred on the test stands which were located in Mississippi, Alabama and California. The most occurred in Mississippi. The Mississippi Test Site is renamed the Stennis Test Site and there are two Test Stands. Ever since Rockets were invented, there have always been those that went wild, exploded or took off on their own and landed on someone’s head.

Now, I can brag and say I don’t know of any S1-C Stage that exploded. At least, I never heard of one. Our team loved our stage and we would have been devastated if one went rogue.

Here is the description of the 2nd Stage that blew up:

On May 28, 1966 a S-II-T stage was destroyed in an explosion at the Mississippi Test Site in the A-2 test stand. I have a video of the aftermath of the explosion. The destruction was terrible. The test stand was damaged to the tune of a Million 1960’s Dollars.

This explosion was due to human error.

Inside the Apollo Project with a Woman Aerospace Engineer