Spent Saturn stages locations?

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ambrous

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Has anyone ever documented or photographed the spent Saturn stages at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?
 
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mattblack

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Not to my knowledge, no. If would cost a lot of money to mount expeditions to see them. And it might be a bit depressing, too: I'd rather see the unflown Saturns fully preserved for the future. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>
 
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drwayne

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There is of course that one SIVB that goes in and out of Earth orbit from time to time....<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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tap_sa

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Is there only one in orbit or is there only one that has been spotted again?
 
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holmec

Guest
>There is of course that one SIVB that goes in and out of Earth orbit from time to time.... <<br /><br />LOL, I wonder if the equivelent to the SIVB in the new lunar plan will do the same thing.<br /><br />So we don't only have junk orbiting the earth but junk that is orbiting the sun as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>
 
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drwayne

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Point of context:<br /><br />The SIVB I was referring to was not put there on purpose, it was a failure. Most SIVB's were impacted on the surface of the moon.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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tap_sa

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Great link, thanks! So there's even a whole LEM out there. Thought they all were crashed.
 
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drwayne

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There's an ascent stage for sure.<br /><br />I am fascinated that hopefully, one day, probably long after I am dead and forgotten, someone will recover that ascent stage. That would be a very interesting day.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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henryhallam

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<font color="yellow"><br />I am fascinated that hopefully, one day, probably long after I am dead and forgotten, someone will recover that ascent stage. That would be a very interesting day.<br /></font><br /><br />A very interesting and VERY smelly day, if the "reports" from those who opened the MPLM from STS-114 are anything to go by... and that was less than three years old!
 
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bpcooper

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The spent stages are not lying on the floor of the ocean. They are in thousands of pieces, the largest of which is likely to be the engine bells. The same goes for all rocket stages and SRBs off the coast; none of them survive intact hitting the ocean after a fall of 30-50 miles. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-Ben</p> </div>
 
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drwayne

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I have often wondered what a first or second state of a Saturn really looking like, plunging from the sky, and impacting the water. (From a semi-safe distance of course)<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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bpcooper

Guest
I do remember the GT stage now that you mention it. From Gemini 5, and it survived for the most part.<br /><br />I don't know how they recovered it and why it was so easy.<br /><br />So it is possible, then, that some rocket stages are out there intact. But Curt Newport (LB7), though I'm sure he would if they had the funds, said as I recall that it is unlikely any Saturn V stage is out there intact.<br /><br />I'm not sure how far up the Titan 2 stage was released vs Saturn V.<br /><br />In 2003 they did an experiment trying to recover the boosters off an Atlas 5. All they recovered was a nosecone. On nearly all the Atlas 2AS launches in fact, the boosters were so fragile that they broke into pieces when separating from the vehicle due to aerodynamic forces. And a few years back, the nosecone of an Ariane 5 SRB floated to the Gulf Coast all the way from the Atlantic.<br /><br />So things survive, but the question is how large, how high is the fall, and at what speed.<br /><br />There are two spent Shuttle SRBs on the ocean floor as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-Ben</p> </div>
 
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bpcooper

Guest
One more photo of it: <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-Ben</p> </div>
 
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viper101

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"There are two spent Shuttle SRBs on the ocean floor as well. "<br /><br />-Please explain, I'm curious how this happened.
 
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viper101

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New question (and I tried googling this one on my own):<br /><br />How is it that Snoopy ened up in Helicentric orbit? I find multiple reference to this, but no explanation as to how this occured. Should the ascent stage not have just crashed like Eagle and the others?<br /><br />"Apollo 10: <br />The lunar module is in heliocentric orbit, thus making it the only intact lunar<br />module ascent ... LM "Snoopy"
 
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drwayne

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I beleive that one was intentional - I will look back at things later to verify my memories...<br /><br />There were some hardware issues in which ascent stages were not de-orbited properly - but they did decay and hit the moon some time later.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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dobbins

Guest
IIRC it's because it had more fuel left over than the other missions. Snoopy didn't actually land on the Moon and when NASA fired a defueling burn to get it away from Charlie Brown it went into Helicentric orbit.<br />
 
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mikejz

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Now that would be a great space prize, say $500 million to go get snoppy and bring him back.
 
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drwayne

Guest
I feel less - weird - for thinking this is neat concept.<br /><br />The Apollo 11 Lunar Module was in lunar orbit for a while, and we don't know exactly where it went in. It might be interesting some time in the future to find its remains - probably scattered over a fairly large area.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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viper101

Guest
I don't know much about the structure of the LEM, but something tells me the debris site would be fairly compact, and the Eagle now resembles a crumpled up ball of tinfoil.<br /><br />The other Ascent stages were de-orbited deliberatley, is that correct? Seems they know the exact location of most of them.
 
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drwayne

Guest
"The other Ascent stages were de-orbited deliberatley, is that correct? Seems they know the exact location of most of them."<br /><br />Other than Snoopy, which we already talked about, that true. There was other ascent stage that had a malfunction, and went into a temporary orbit.<br /><br />There was also a flight or two where they hand launched a small satellite before leaving lunar orbit. Their orbits decayed as well, I think within months.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>
 
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