If Launch Pad 39A was the stage, the star of these explosive performances was the Saturn V, a monster of a rocket with five engines—hence the V—that generated enough force to power New York City for more than an hour, consuming fuel at a rate of 15 tons per second. Fully fueled, the Saturn V weighed more than 6.2 million pounds. It had 3 million parts and to this day remains the most powerful rocket ever built. At ignition, flames and thick billowing plumes of smoke gushed from its engines, each nearly two stories tall, and surged through a flame trench the size of a subway tunnel. The roar
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