This is an illustration from physics professor Peter Alway’s 1995 book Rockets of the World. That little black-and-yellow smudge in the second row, that’s the V-2. Hit the jump for mega-size.
Click on the picture to zoom or download the full 3,322×5,079 image here. It’s quite amazing what a monster the Saturn V still is, almost 40 years in retirement.
[Via Jalopnik]
10 thoughts on “Rockets of the world”
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Cool poster, it’s too bad that it is so out of date! There are a lot of cool rockets that could be added.
Two that come to mind would be the Space X Falcon 1 (successful launches last year), at ~22m high, would come in about halfway through the 3rd row.
Space X’s larger rocket, the Falcon 9, which achieved LEO in June (http://www.spacex.com/F9-001.php), at ~55m high, would come in on the bottom row, between the Proton, USSR and the Space Shuttle, USA. Amazing how far private industry spacecraft have come since this poster was made, back when it was dominated by government projects.
How long until we build something bigger than the venerable Saturn V?
Peter Alway’s Saturn Press has long been the resource for builders of scale model rockets.
There’s a series of Rockets of the World books, too.
Didn’t this come with a Popular Mechanics magazine or something several years ago? I tend to recall getting it folded into forths and had NASA badges from years past on the reverse side.
I’ve stood under the Saturn V rocket, at the space center in Huntsville, Alabama. The poster just doesn’t do justice. While the place exists, it is worth the trip.
Biggest thrill for me (while working on the Saturn/Apollo Program) was standing on the Mobile Launcher White Room Service Arm and looking down on the monster… into the flame pit below. IT WAS/IS GIANTIC!