Saturn V
There were two times in my life when I ran in total abject fear
One was flooring the
accelerator of my dad’s new Super 88 Oldsmobile down the shore to lose the cops
chasing us in their new Mercury Turnpike Cruiser. It
was late at night and I simply didn’t want to get caught. I made a bad decision
in trying to get away and now here they were gaining on us at
every corner with their blaring red light and siren and, me, scared half to
death trying to escape who knows what – probably a speeding
ticket and now “running from the law” or “ignoring sirens” or worse – “endangering
normal people”. There were three guys in the back
making comments like; “they’re closing on us”. I had to do something. So, I
floored it – right through the stop sign across Ventnor Avenue
Yeah – it was scary, but
nothing like the launch of the Saturn Five.
Don’t try this,
you will die. I’m not kidding. There is no way to explain these things without
referring to the magical forces that protect children. Call it what
you will, there are forces that exist over and above our sphere and one thing
they do is watch over children who play
with fire. Again, in remembering these things. I have a hard time believing that we escaped serious
damage.
There was
something far more exciting and meaningful than the first small step by man and
the giant leap for mankind. This was easily the ten years leading up to
this historic event. Neither the landing on the Moon nor the ten years
preceding it actually happened exactly as reported as many will attest firsthand.
Well, there were not that many witnesses to the landing – even though it was
televised everywhere in the world. There were very few people on the moon at that time. There were, however, lots of firsthand people on the earth
to witness everything else, and this was far more unbelievable. Look, it is near impossible to land an untested craft on the surface of the moon - broadcast the event live - and then take off, rendezvous with another circling craft and return to earth with people and moon rocks. The most incredible part was and is that it actually happened!!
We were totally caught up in the space race. The Russians were launching dogs
and satellites and running circles around us. I was
fifteen and experimenting with rocket fuels like everybody else. It was all
over Popular Science, which, next to Popular Mechanics and Motor
Trend were my favorite magazines. I won’t tell you what I mixed up, because
you’ll kill yourself just like I nearly did, but it was sure powerful.
It had to be to beat the Russians. I do remember hammering finishing nails in
between the wide copper tube and the socket I was using for
a nozzle – just to tighten it up and make sure it didn’t blow out from the
pressure. Ouch, I still get shivers remembering this. All the
experiments with fuses. electrical filament fuses and a dry cell battery. “Jet
X” fuses – sold at toy and hobby stores then – these were chemical
fuses – you light them and they burn along till they reach the target – strings
embedded with some kind of flammable material. No, this was just me and my friends following the moon program along and playing with our own models - of course. We chose
the Jet X for the Saturn V tube
(Saturn V Rocket), leaned the
rocket against an empty two gallon oil can, and attached about three feet of fuse, lit
it and ran. We must have run about 60 yards or so and – Kaboom – off it went –
not skyward mind you – even though this was the
plan – but in every direction there was – like a mortar shell. In fact, having
been in the Army for a little while and working very closely to the
mortar units, it was exactly like a mortar round, loud, a bright flash, and
scary as all heck. It was totally involuntary, but we just kept running and involuntarily laughing – I mean laughing – couldn’t stop laughing. It was strange.
But, this wasn’t
the fear – the fear came on the second shot. Now, listen, If this all sounds
like high school to you, it’s because it was high school and this is what high school sounds like. Our second launch was more carefully done. Now that
we knew what to expect, we could design a better rocket
that would have more thrust and a safer launch pad.
A much larger copper tube
was packed with easily twice as much “rocket fuel” and
ultimately propped up against a dug out drainage ditch alongside a bend in an
out of the way dirt road. The plan was to allow plenty of
time to get out of any danger in case of the "lift off" problems we had on our first launch. It was a full horseshoe
bend and the rocket was on the
outside of one side and we would exit, following the road we came in on and
leave plenty of fuse. Then, wait to watch it soar skyward and
celebrate our creativity. Well, all of this went fine and we had lit the fuse,
turned the bend in the road and were on the other side when it
happened. A little blue Volkswagen with a smiling driver and about three
passengers – kids, mind you – obviously all very friendly came put-putting along as carefree as you could imagine – right on target. Talk
about perfect timing. Now, you cannot imagine what it was like to
watch that little car make the turn down at the end of that dirt road.
I should have screamed – jumped up and down – waved them off like on
an aircraft carrier – you know? But I didn’t - none of us did anything – we
just stood there with open mouths and experienced fear – raw
fear. We remembered our last launch – vividly. I remember driving with my wife down to the dead sea in Israel once - following someone who was traveling too fast for the curves in the road. At
that time, very few Israelis had cars and had very little driving
experience. I turned to my wife and said, “he won’t be able to make these turns
at that speed – he’ll lose the road”. He did – went right off the
road. Fortunately, nothing serious. You get used to driving – like riding a
bike – you know? The rocket was going to blow up. We half
expected it. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. We went back to check – after a
good half an hour or so. The copper tube had turned all sorts
of colors from the heat. Apparently, it had just lain there and burnt up. Thank heaven! I was fortunate enough to
work for RCA in Hightstown , NJ
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