![]() He worked with rocket pioneer Werner Van Braun on the Saturn V. Mitchell signed on as a NASA engineer in 1960 when Marshall first opened up. NASA trading card for retired engineer Kenny Mitchell The Command Module capsule from Apollo 16 is here, as well as a Saturn V rocket on its side that was tested here before the Apollo 11 launch in 1969. This is where the public gets to see Alabama’s role in the space race. Miles from test stand 4670, along interstate 565, visitors crowd the museum at the U.S. “It’s almost the old joke that…miraculously, one day, a Saturn V showed up at the pad, you know,” Odom said. The problem is, that launch took place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the astronauts live work in Houston, so Huntsville’s contribution is largely forgotten. That first stage is what sent Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins on their way to the moon. “Then, you have this huge explosion, and y have fire coming out of that flame bucket, that you could see for miles,” Odom said. Odom said in 1965, a Saturn rocket’s first stage was put into the test stand, clamped down, fueled up, and the engines were ignited. ![]() “So it’s a huge engineering marvel, in itself, capable of holding that big rocket.” I mean you talking forty feet deep beneath the surface, tapped into the bedrock, more concrete than you see above,” Odom said. Test stand 4670 at the Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Apollo Saturn V was tested in the mid 1960's.
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