LEGO Designer:
Adam Wilde (Apollo 110)
Designed:
September 2024
Categories:
All, Apollo Program, Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, Launch Vehicles, Manned Spaceflight, Space Agency - NASA
Launch Vehicle Details
Stages:
2 stage
Length:
68.1 m
Diameter:
6.53 m
Mass at Launch:
587.3 tonnes
Low Earth Orbit Capacity:
21000 kg
Total Thrust:
7290 kN
Apogee:
250 km
Class:
Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle
The Saturn IB launch vehicle played a vital yet often overlooked role in NASA’s Apollo program. As a more powerful evolution of the earlier Saturn I, the Saturn IB was designed to support critical early missions while the mighty Saturn V was still in development.
Upgraded with a new second stage—the S-IVB, which would later be shared with the Saturn V—the Saturn IB dramatically increased payload capacity to low Earth orbit. This made it ideal for testing key components of the Apollo spacecraft, including the Command and Service Module (CSM) and the Lunar Module (LM), before the first missions to the Moon.
By using the same upper stage as the Saturn V, the Saturn IB created a streamlined interface for Apollo spacecraft integration. While the Saturn V’s S-IVB stage was built to reignite in space for lunar missions, the Saturn IB version used all its fuel to reach Earth orbit.
Between 1966 and 1975, Saturn IB launched a series of essential missions. These included the first crewed Apollo flight (Apollo 7), critical uncrewed test flights, and missions that supported the development of restartable upper stages. The vehicle also carried astronauts to America’s first space station, Skylab, and flew the Apollo spacecraft in the historic Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, marking the first international crewed spaceflight.
Though eventually retired, the Saturn IB proved to be a reliable workhorse in NASA’s transitional years—bridging the gap between early Apollo tests and full lunar exploration. Its contributions laid the foundation for both scientific advancement and international collaboration in space.
Saturn IBs SA-206, SA-207 and SA-208 were used to ferry the three crews for the Skylab 2/3/4 missions to the United States’ first space station, launching between May 25 and November 16, 1973. These were the first IBs to have white fuel tanks. SA-209 was rolled out as the standby Skylab Rescue vehicle but its services were never needed and it now forms part of the Saturn IB exhibit (with a boilerplate CSM) in the rocket garden at Kennedy Space Center.
This detailed, stageable model is designed at 1:110 scale – perfect to complement the official Saturn V set.
For the best possible look as shown in the instruction cover image, custom printed parts for the USA markings on the S-IVB and the Vertical Motion Target on the Interstage are available from Millionprints. For this model, you would need set ‘A110B-IB-A’ (14 parts). XML files are included for the standard parts you would need, either with or without the custom printed parts. I’ve included a comparison image in the slideshow to show what the rocket looks like with and without the custom printed parts.
The first stage tank design is derived from a Saturn IB S-IB MOC by saxus, and is used with his kind permission. It also incorporates aspects of MOCs by kh.bricks and TheBrickFrontier.
If you decide to purchase these instructions (thank you!), please do read the ReadMe file before ordering parts. The notes in there are hopefully pretty helpful.
Part count: bricks, lots.
| Unit | width | length | height |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studs | |||
| Inches | |||
| Centimetres |
No: TNo: Serial Type Date LS Payload
11 1 SA-201 Saturn-1B 26.02.1966 CC LC-34 * Apollo 201 (CSM 009) 12 2 SA-203 Saturn-1B 05.07.1966 CC LC-37B Apollo 203 13 3 SA-202 Saturn-1B 25.08.1966 CC LC-34 * Apollo 202 (CSM 011) 14 4 SA-204 Saturn-1B 22.01.1968 CC LC-37B LM 1 (Apollo 5) 15 5 SA-205 Saturn-1B 11.10.1968 CC LC-34 Apollo 7 (CSM 101) 16 6 SA-206 Saturn-1B 25.05.1973 CCK LC-39B Skylab 2 (Apollo SLM-1, CSM 116) 17 7 SA-207 Saturn-1B 28.07.1973 CCK LC-39B Skylab 3 (Apollo SLM-2, CSM 117) / S150 (Galactic X-ray Mapping) 18 8 SA-208 Saturn-1B 16.11.1973 CCK LC-39B Skylab 4 (Apollo SLM-3, CSM 118) 19 9 SA-210 Saturn-1B 15.07.1975 CCK LC-39B ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz, CSM 111) / ASTP-DM * = suborbital Launch sites: CC = Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA CCK = NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA
Launch History information from space.skyrocket.de
Launch History information from space.skyrocket.de
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