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50 free Saturn V trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Saturn V trivia quiz covers the rocket that took humans to the Moon: its three stages and their builders, the five F-1 engines and the J-2s above them, kerosene versus hydrogen, the IBM instrument unit, the height, mass and payload records, and the launch sequence from staggered ignition to trans-lunar injection. It also covers the story around the hardware — von Braun and Marshall, the C-5 becoming Saturn V, John Houbolt and lunar orbit rendezvous, all-up testing, Apollo 4's window-rattling debut, Apollo 6's pogo, the first crewed flight on Apollo 8, Apollo 17's night launch, Skylab, the Vehicle Assembly Building and crawler-transporters, the costs, the museum rockets, the S-IVB mistaken for an asteroid and the engines Jeff Bezos found on the seabed. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation. Enjoy this one? Try our Apollo 11 and NASA quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What destination was the Saturn V built to send astronauts toward?
The Moon
Nine of its thirteen launches sent 24 astronauts moonward, from Apollo 8 to Apollo 17.
Q 02How many Saturn V rockets were launched?
13
All flew between 1967 and 1973 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39; two more were built but never flown.
Q 03How many stages did the Saturn V have?
Three
The S-IC, S-II and S-IVB were topped by the instrument unit and the Apollo spacecraft.
Q 04What was the payload of the final Saturn V launch in 1973?
Skylab
America's first space station was converted from a Saturn V third stage.
Q 05How tall did the Saturn V stand with the Apollo spacecraft on top?
363 feet
That is about 111 metres, with a base diameter of 33 feet not counting the fins.
Q 06What record for payload to low Earth orbit does the Saturn V still hold?
About 140,000 kg
That figure includes the S-IVB third stage with fuel left to push Apollo toward the Moon.
Q 07Which NASA centre designed the Saturn V?
Marshall Space Flight Center
The Huntsville, Alabama team was led by German scientists including Wernher von Braun, Kurt Debus and Arthur Rudolph.
Q 08Which German-born engineer led the Saturn V's technical design?
Wernher von Braun
Brought to the US in 1945 under Operation Paperclip, he had helped create the V-2.
Q 09Which company built all of the Saturn V's engines?
Rocketdyne
Boeing, North American Aviation and Douglas built the three stages; IBM built the instrument unit.
Q 10How many F-1 engines powered the Saturn V's first stage?
Five
Arranged in a quincunx, the centre engine was fixed while the four outer ones gimballed to steer.
Q 11What distinction does the F-1 still hold?
Most powerful single-chamber liquid-fuel engine ever built
Early tests suffered violent combustion instability before engineers tamed it.
Q 12Which company built the S-IC first stage?
Boeing
It was assembled at the Michoud facility in New Orleans and tested in Mississippi.
Q 13What fuel did the first stage burn, unlike the hydrogen-fuelled upper stages?
RP-1 kerosene
Kerosene's higher energy density suits the dense lower atmosphere; hydrogen's higher specific energy suits the push to the Moon.
Q 21Which numbered Apollo mission was the only crewed Saturn V launched at night?
17
It lifted off at 12:33 am on 7 December 1972 after the Apollo program's only launchpad delay.
Q 22What was the 'all-up' testing philosophy adopted for the Saturn V?
Fly all stages live on the first test flight
It meant far fewer test flights were needed before a crewed launch.
Q 23What was the rocket designated before it received its name in February 1963?
Saturn C-5
The C-1 became the Saturn I and the C-1B the Saturn IB at the same time.
Q 14Which engine type powered both the S-II and the S-IVB?
Rocketdyne J-2
The S-II carried five, the S-IVB just one, all burning liquid hydrogen and oxygen.
Q 15Roughly how long did the first stage burn before separating?
About 150 seconds
It delivered 33,000 kN of thrust at sea level from a fully fuelled mass of some 2.2 million kg.
Q 16Which company designed and built the instrument unit's digital computer?
IBM
The ring-shaped unit sat atop the S-IVB, and its stable platform derived from an experimental V-2 unit.
Q 17Which numbered Apollo mission was the first Saturn V launch, in November 1967?
4
It was an 'all-up' test with every stage live on the very first flight, a first for NASA.
Q 18What did the first Saturn V launch do to the Launch Control Center three miles away?
Shook dust from the ceiling onto consoles
A Columbia scientist called it one of the loudest noises in human history, excepting nuclear explosions.
Q 19What problem shook the rocket during its second, uncrewed test flight in April 1968?
Pogo oscillations
Thrust fluctuations in the first stage set up longitudinal vibrations, yet the flight still qualified the rocket for crews.
Q 20Which numbered Apollo mission was the first crewed Saturn V launch?
8
In December 1968 Borman, Lovell and Anders became the first humans to orbit the Moon.
Q 24Why was the Saturn rocket family named after the planet Saturn?
It followed the earlier Jupiter rockets
Von Braun called the Jupiter series 'an infant Saturn'.
Q 25Which mission mode, announced in November 1962, let one rocket reach the Moon?
Lunar orbit rendezvous
Langley engineer John Houbolt championed it against a proposed giant Nova rocket for direct ascent.
Q 26Which Langley engineer led the campaign for the LOR mission mode?
John Houbolt
His idea used a small two-man lander that would rendezvous with the mother ship in lunar orbit.
Q 27How were the massive first and second stages transported to Kennedy Space Center?
By barge and ship
Only the smaller S-IVB could fly, aboard the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy.
Q 28Which aircraft flew the S-IVB third stages from California to Florida?
Super Guppy
The bulbous Aero Spacelines aircraft was built for exactly this kind of oversized cargo.
Q 29Where at Kennedy Space Center were the rockets stacked?
The Vehicle Assembly Building
At 160 metres it was Florida's tallest building until 1974 and remains the world's largest single-storey building.
Q 30How tall are the VAB's high-bay doors, the largest in the world?
456 feet
Each takes about 45 minutes to open or close.