Fifty years ago on March 6, 1963, NASA awarded a contract to The Boeing Company to develop and produce the powerful Saturn V first stage, known as the S-IC stage. The stage underwent hot-fire testing at the S-IC Static Test Firing Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
This photograph made on March 1, 1965, shows the Saturn V static testing stage, designated S-IC-T stage, being moved from the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory to the newly-built S-1C Static Test Stand in the west test area at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Known as S-IC-T, the stage was a static test vehicle not intended for flight. It was ground tested repeatedly over a period of many months proving the vehicle’s propulsion system. During testing, the five F-1 engine stages that powered the first stage collectively produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust. The shaking, smoke and fire generated from that series of test firings earned the Marshall Center the nickname “the land of the earth shakers.”Image Credit: NASA/MSFC