The Estes Saturn 1B is a stunning 1:100 recreation of this rocket of the Apollo era. Designed to test Apollo hardware, it later served as crew launch vehicle for Skylab and the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. Build and launch this Master-Level kit for spectacular lift-offs and dazzling dual parachute recoveries.
Resembling a cluster of smaller rockets, the tanks are sometimes misidentified as re-purposed Redstone missile stages. In fact, these 70-inch diameter tanks were created using the same forms that produced the Redstone rockets.
So, while they share a common lineage, they were not surplus rockets themselves.
The tanks fueled eight H-1 engines, four of which could gimbal to steer the rocket while under power.
Eight low profile fins ringed the base of the rocket for guidance during atmospheric flight.
Description
Before there was the Saturn V, there was the Saturn 1B, the NASA test bed for Apollo flight hardware. Versions of the Apollo Command and Service Module, and the Lunar Module were all test flown on the Saturn 1B while the Saturn V was still in development. Even the S-IVB upper stage which served as the third stage of the Saturn V was first tested on the Saturn 1B, functioning as that vehicle's second stage. The Saturn 1B would eventually see service as the primary launch vehicle for Earth orbit missions in the Apollo spacecraft.
