KSP: The Saturn 8 - NASA's Massive Moon Rocket that Never Flew

[@MattLowne]

Enjoy! Very excited to recreate this, the C-8 has been on my list for quite some time now so happy to finally bring it to your screens! What's your favourite historical misson, either real and hypothetical? INB4 Sea Dragon ;)

[@camhollo1139]

well done Matt! I hope your channel keeps on growing!!

[@felixr1785]

Matt Lowne Do the UR-700! It’s the USSRs version of the C8: -Superheavy launcher for direct ascent moon mission -9 Extremely powerful engines at takeoff - never got built because it’s way too big It’s also one of the most Kerbal rockets ever designed: it uses asparagus staging and uses only highly toxic propellants

[@saltnvinegar6607]

Mine would be the Saturn 10.

[@douglasparkinson4123]

Mate . this thing can do call if u no hack gravity

[@douglasparkinson4123]

Vall typo sorry

[@starshot5172]

Looks like the Saturn V had a baby with the N1-L3 lmao

[@spamlord7570]

Space duck 0w0 didnt know you like ksp

[@starshot5172]

As long as it's space related ;)

[@LightRealms]

Space duck lol thats what I thought

[@sagittariusa2973]

Team epiphany Art and Space Duck, wow, I didn't expect you to be here..

[@johntom6002]

I do believe that was the ideal cause the n1-l3 why be it a failure had a much better thrust to weight ratio than the Saturn v so they thought the shape was the key so they can jam more engines into the first stage

[@waffletracktor]

8:58 "Not a faithful representation of how NASA would have got back to kerbin" considering nasa has never made it to kerbin i'd say so!

[@nerdzy8454]

@latt mowne Can't believe space debris is becoming an issue, just bring up the object thrower and shoot all of it down!

[@catgirlQueer]

@latt mowne eye eagles

[@dct1769]

Nerdzy nah just go to the tracking station and terminate all the debris

[@KSPAtlas]

Technically the truth

[@HeidenLam]

@@dct1769 Exactly, this can save a lot of money lol

[@Anodi-sf5tp]

CHALLENGE: Now land that whole thing on the moon

[@InitiateDee]

Believe me, he could do it if he wanted to.

[@sagittariusa2973]

Team epiphany Art Didnt expect you to be here, I thought that you are just in SFS vids

[@spamlord7570]

ROCKLOY The Gamer im in ksp vids sfs vids science vids nasa vids spacex. Vids astronomy vids

[@jonaskovamees6948]

latt mowne you can't have nukes in space. Laws against it exist.

[@dudeman4514]

Too basic fro him

[@CaiHy-Bri]

I'm loving the "In Thrust We Trust" flag.

[@dylansinnott768]

I was at the kennedy space centre on holidays. The saturn 5 was so cool.

[@redactedagentdataexpunged9431]

@latt mowne MATT LOWNE FOREVER

[@RandomPerson-jo7cw]

It's at the Johnson Space Center too, and it took me like 2 minutes to walk from one side to the other

[@camerondon3712]

I would LOOOOOOOOVE to see a Saturn V in person, as I'm sure my (former) physics teacher would as well. Only problem is that we live in Scotland.

[@russellcoughlin2052]

The Saturn V is truly massive, I've seen it first hand. To imagine something even larger then that... wow. Just wow.

[@KesslerSpaceIndustries]

Never heard of Saturn 8 before. Thanks for the info and nice recreation as always Matt!

[@sfsbuildz779]

Kessler Spaceflight Industries Kessler man, I like your channel, we tie in subs😂

[@ant1528]

IT IS WEDNESDAY MY DU- Wait wrong video

[@bvsveera]

Ah yes, another Planet Coaster viewer

[@jonathanlund2456]

Who would win: The kraken, a being of the fourth dimension, set out to destroy any large ship or station or Pressing F9 and disabling SAS

[@tymccormick2512]

F9!

[@lunarsniper2477]

F9!

[@greentea1396]

Falcon9!

[@calengo454]

and time warp

[@jamlessdoughnut]

@MattLowne you are a absolute legend Keep up the brilliant work

[@littleuwu2594]

Saturn V: had 5 engines on first stage Saturn VIII: has 8 engines on first stage Me: *Saturn X*

[@literalcringe9503]

Gotta skip 9

[@Conofive]

Me: Saturn M

[@spaceygamez]

The Soviets did the complete opposite and the N1 definitely didn't have 1 engine

[@TRTF5]

Yeah what ever, my big brother still likes Saturn 8

[@aliteralpothole9205]

I prefer the Saturn 50. Saturn 50 has 50 engines on the first stage, 25 engines on the second stage, and 10 engines for the Mercury, Venus, Moon, and Mars landings. For anyone thinking this is an actual idea, it’s not, don’t waste your time.

[@KlingonCaptain]

Thank you for another great video to spice up my Saturday morning.

[@KlingonCaptain]

What's with all the Matt clones?

[@1337ledmetallica]

You have articulated the name almost correctly. Good work. For perfect german google translate "Wern Herr von Braun" as german language. As Wernher the german voice will say "Werner"... and for me as german ist Werner someone other guy (most german cartoon ^^)

[@CathrineMacNiel]

LedMetallica Werner! Ich glaub die Russen sind da.

[@eekee6034]

6:58 That separation was amazing! :D Dropping a stage during landing with its engine burning so it flies away, but somehow it doesn't fly back into you... is quite a stunt! Looks great too!

[@surrealsupercell7217]

That landing at 7:30 is an accurate representation of 90% of landings in KSP. The suspense is real...

[@jpy5349]

Direct Ascent? JUST ADD MOAR BOOSTERS!!! Edit: I had to fix the spelling of Accent to Ascent

[@darthmemeious9526]

i miss that song... pls never delete this.

[@The_E-2_Hawkeye]

I saw a Saturn V yesterday at the Johnson space center and it was huge I can’t imagine a rocket bigger

[@01_SPACE_C0WB0Y]

Well starship exists...

[@albertpeterson5585]

...von Braun's c8 was limited to 440 feet because the VAB was designed around it. Also, if his earth space station, lunar space station, and lunar bases program were funded, there would have been two VAB buildings and 4 or 5 launch pads. There was also a c8n with a nuclear third stage.

[@ln5321]

There's so little out there in the way of C-8 recreations that it's great to see such a faithful depiction of it here. Good work!

[@williamlove6876]

In addition to the direct ascent and LOR, there was a third proposed strategy: Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR). EOR was actually the proposed strategy for the Soviet program. In EOR, a ship is assembled (typically a booster, command module, and lunar module) and fueled in orbit around the Earth, then flies to the moon/Mun, where the lunar module makes a landing, returns to the orbiting command module, and then the command module returns to the earth.

[@pahlavi5312]

Oh so that's what it was called, direct ascent was it? True, it is very simple and very intuitive, but I can see the advantages of lunar orbit rendezvous. I still can't perform lunar orbit rendezvous though. I'm finding it hard to rendezvous from the surface of the Mun into orbit, but I guess all I need is more practice. Edit: Btw, I've been wanting to tell you this for a while now: Don't mind people who tell negative and unconstructive things about your videos. I for one enjoy your videos and look forward to it everytime.

[@ferret1337]

Hohmann transfer was considered the safest way to get to the moon. direct assent requires tons more power on earth yeah. ,, i agree so many negative jerks on youtube. it's a small group of people compared to tons who actually care about science, space and having intellectual discussion.

[@petergaming1378]

Same I always look forward to these KSP videos!

[@alexlawson4173]

The only way I could get back from mars (the in-game name has slipped my mind) was orbital rendezvous.

[@Tuning3434]

+pahlavi5312 Practice, practice, practice. Once you get the hang of it, and understand how you need to read your 'instruments' from the map screen, it is one of the routine things to do. (I generally have 4 a 5 rendevouz in every game-session i play). Now trying to consistently land your ships back near (or as an SSTO back to) the KSP, that one is challenging.

[@pahlavi5312]

Yeah I need more practice. I have no problems doing rendezvous while in orbit, but doing it from the surface is proving more difficult than I thought. Then there's also the problem of my lander's ascent stage lacking enough delta-v for correction burns. But I know I'll get there soon enough.

[@Dr.Coconut1245]

Notice how he ditched two RTG’s to be destroyed on re-entry (for those who don’t know, RTG’s are basically hunks of plutonium-238 In a box that makes energy with the radioactivity) 9:47

[@notjebbutstillakerbal]

The Kerbals are gonna be a lot greener

[@adamdubin1276]

The lander for the Apollo missions was refered to as the Lunar Module or the Lunar Excursion Module depending on which documents you were looking at. The Eagle was the name given to the Lunar Module used in the Apollo XI mission

[@apollo4619]

Actually the Nova series was going to launch for LC39-C the pad that was never built but very nearly was.If you see a arial photo of the crawlerway it has a dead end after passing 39B and that was so a crawlerway could be built to the planned 39C and D.

[@SeoDeadeHenn]

Wernher von Braun's resume from 1933-1945: I was a businessman... Doing business...

[@adamantium1983]

I’m glad you made this video Matt. Wonderfully done.

[@somedudetm2743]

Finally! Putting the N-1 to shame.

[@InitiateDee]

Poor N-1. He thought he and his 4 friends were the strongest in the neighbourhood.

[@dudeman4514]

No one can put the n-1 to shame

[@troggns8878]

2 years since Matt last used this intro music. God, it sounds good. Screw YT’s wierd copyright system.

[@gamereditor59ner22]

Nice work and keep it up!!!

[@ferret1337]

I wish I woke up an hour earlier. freaking awesome Vid Matt Lowne!

[@MrEpyLeptik]

Coming home from work, having this video to watch, #feelsgoodman. Keep up buddy, thanks.

[@connorlightfoot4290]

Good morning looks like a cool rocket

[@connorlightfoot4290]

Who knows does “critically exposed” usually follow your comments

[@sunov]

9:01 Wow! NASA went to Kerbin?! Great video Matt as always

[@QuintonMurdock]

Matt, your so good at making craft that don’t suck. I screenshot most of your vids and take design notes

[@gigamut11b86]

Nice...I'd forgotten about the Saturn 8...cool version ya made there...I like it :) I hope you have a great day/weekend & be safe.

[@CountArtha]

The Apollo CSM WAS the ascent stage for the direct ascent mission. That's why the service module's engine is so obscenely large - it was designed to lift the CSM off the Moon and boost it back to Earth.

[@ecco4934]

I love the fact he actually took time to find out stuff about Apollo 11 "Saturn V"

[@shriramvenu]

also von Braun originally proposed either Direct Ascent or EARTH orbit rendezvous to go to the moon. Lunar orbit rendezvous was proposed later by Dr John Houbolt

[@henrijayy]

I tried to learn to dock using an Apollo 11; no true replica found on the Steam Workshop. I recreated it. Partial success.

[@2150dalek]

Very nice...Never heard of that rocket....Interesting 8 legged Lunar Module....In Ranger-esque style....

[@1987VCRProductions]

The Apollo CSM would have been the ascent stage of the direct ascent mission profile. The SPS engine on the CSM ended up being twice as powerful as it needed to be for a Lunar Orbit Rendezvous mission as it was designed to lift the Command and Service modules from the lunar surface into lunar orbit. The original block 1 Apollo CSM (only flew unmanned and was the type of CSM involved in the Apollo 1 fire) was the design that would have been used for the direct ascent profile. The landing stage for this design was never built but there were models and mock ups of what the whole spacecraft would have looked like.

[@charlesvan13]

I heard the engine on the service module was originally intended to be on the ascent stage of the Nova launch system. That's why the 8 foot wide exhaust bell seems rather large.

[@antonwestergaard5913]

well that was awesome :D

[@redenginner]

The upper stage of the apollo direct ascent lander would have been a service module derived stage. The engine developed for the service module was overkill for LOR because it was designed for launching from the moon.

[@breestep9591]

Matt Lowne you are making the best rockets ever! your video inspired me to make a Lego Saturn 8 only it was a little made up.

[@phoenix5384]

How about doing a video about one (Or more) of one of the pre-build designs of one of the US's most amazing spacecraft: The shuttle?

[@zgasser1537]

I love these kinds of videos where you make historical rockets. please make more : )

[@johnmorgan8558]

I've been to the Kenedy Space Center and seen the Saturn 5 it was the tallest thing there. My grandmother is now retired from NASA she would the crew and even speak to them while they were out on their missions.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

One of the many design problems w/ the Nova was a major revamp of the fuel tanks...they were so large that the LOX and liquid H2 would boil off before launch!

[@gamingwithalexander6030]

You know how space craft shake during launch? You can imagine how much the Saturn C-8 would’ve shaked

[@Pointclearius]

one way to overcome the hack gravity speed problem is to exit to the space center reset gravity and then switch back to the craft via the tracking station. ksp looks at the orbit periapsis, (other thingy) and speed. but because the gravity has changed the speed is invalid so ksp changes the crafts speed to match its orbit. so the craft is in the same orbit at 1 x gravity speed in stead of 2.25 gravity speed.

[@vincentb5431]

Wake up people The earth is a trapezoid #TrapezoidEarthSociety

[@rshust]

#TetrahedronEarthSociety

[@shtuffs]

#CubeEarthSociety

[@jan_Sanku]

#FourDimensionalSpheroidEarthSociety

[@ricksadler797]

I thought it was a hollow doughnut

[@lidz6023]

No, #TurtleEarth

[@diogomiguel2409]

I do love your videos, and even though I'm not such as skilled as you at the game, i really enjoy the videos and learn something about KPS and real-life facts with them. Keep going bro. I would like to give you a challenge if you would accept it xD. It's something I would love to see done on KSP but i'm not nearly as skilled to do it myself. It is to reenact the Armageddon movie mission...I mean, if it's possible to take 2 spaceships Freedom and Independence that would be awesome, if not, just 1 will be fine, couple in a space station, refuel, slingshot on the mun and land on an asteroid, respecting of course the few stages used on the movie xD It would be even more awesome if the spaceshuttle could carry a vehicle(as the one they used to drill), but i think i'm asking for too much already ahah.

[@halvorstjern3442]

Looks just like the N1

[@friedrichnietzsche9767]

The N1 was Flawless the computers were supper accurate and the stage separation always succeeded

[@brodieleonard5817]

When its been that long that you get exited about the music

[@kinetickey]

Hey Matt, can you try and build the Artemis rocket? It would be cool seeing you build and launch it right after the real one launched.

[@Uejji]

The two original proposed methods were Direct Ascent and *Earth* Orbit Rendezvous. Apollo was originally envisioned as a craft that would land on the lunar surface in its entirety, but that required a large lander vehicle, as it contained the entire spacecraft that was meant to survive the trip back, and an exceptionally large lander stage capable of bringing that vehicle to the lunar surface (*much* larger than you've recreated here.) This is why Block 1 Apollo did not have the docking tunnel that Block 2 (after LOR was chosen) did. The challenge then was how to lift this enormous vehicle (and the enormous TLI vehicle it would have required) into Earth orbit. Either all at once with a *huge* rocket (Direct Ascent) or in pieces that would be assembled in Earth orbit (Earth Orbit Redezvous). EOR had the advantage that a smaller rocket (Saturn 2, which would have required 15 separate launches to assemble the vehicle, or Saturn 3, which would have required 5 or 6) could be used, which was a much easier hurdle, but had the challenge of requiring multiple perfect launches followed by multiple perfect rendezvous with a perfect reassembly before the lunar mission could even begin. DA had the advantage that the spacecraft could be sent up all in one go, but they had to somehow create a *massive* rocket capable of pulling this off. Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (aka the Lunar Taxi) was an outlandish proposal by Thomas Dolan (though Soviet scientists had come up with the idea decades before) that solved all of these problems--a large rocket still had to be used, but much smaller than the DA mission profile would have required, and it allowed a smaller lander to land on the lunar surface, a much simpler feat than the required massive Apollo lander. However, he and many others had to fight to get it approved, as Wernher von Braun had a lot of clout (understandably) and preferred having the entire Apollo vehicle land on the lunar surface. In the end, it was hard to ignore the advantages of LOR, and it was accepted, which required a major restructuring of the program, and the rest is history.

[@skaownz234]

Thanks a ton! That was awesome!!!

[@lovehawks2814]

The Apollo lunar lander was known as the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM.

[@Andrey_Gysev]

When you turned USSR anthem on, I reflexively began to sing. Strange. How do I know the text?

[@sergey1519]

Музыка та же, что и у гимна РФ, но текст другой

[@Thefreakyfreek]

Jep me to

[@tqser]

Me: **reads the description without seeing the video first** *National anthem of the USSR* Me: Tf?

[@magnadolosfs2707]

Same lol

[@andrewbloom5751]

7:20 , I never thought those words would ever come out of his mouth

[@thekerbalway7303]

There are actually 3 methods proposed. The first two, plus Earth Orbit Rendezvous, which needed two launches.

[@gmurek7624]

Looks great keep it up!

[@Raptor747]

Er, the two methods for getting to the moon originally envisioned were Direct Ascent and EARTH-orbit rendezvous. At the time, docking was considered so difficult that doing it in Earth orbit was considered to be hard enough--doing it in lunar orbit was considered absurd. A lower-level staffer later came up with the idea of lunar-orbit rendezvous, and he had a hard time getting the serious consideration needed to turn his proposal into a reality.

[@fluxx5783]

Can you make a guide on how to design an SSTO? Just the basic rules and some tips. I want to build an SSTO but I'm struggling with how to balance it and such. It would be really great if you could!

[@RoccoGermani]

This looks like a truly impressive rocket! Would have loved to see it fly in real life!

[@RoccoGermani]

latt mowne true 😂

[@sodiumftw2450]

Fun fact: Sputnik is actually the Russian word for “satellite”

[@francescolombardi6224]

I'm gonna send the first man-made satellite ever to orbit! Great! What's its name? *Satellite 1*

[@thekrieger2959]

Didn't know that

[@eekee6034]

When I was a kid, I was told it was Russian for "potato". I still wish that had been true. ^.^;

[@IamINERT]

Mat your a legend

[@comanderracoon9105]

You should strap 3 Saturn 5’s together, and try to see if you could fly straight into the sun. Or try to get to eeloo without any modifications.

[@Archway16]

Hey Matt Lowne can you try recreating the Sea Dragon which was an abandoned rocket project in 1962 which was suppose to carry men to the moon and Mars

[@spartanalex9006]

Wasn't there a NASA plan to hollow out the upper stages of one of these, put a nuclear reactor and thrustor in, and use it for manned flybys of Venus and Mars?

[@Damien.D]

wasn't the direct ascent route also accompanied by a direct landing without orbiting the Moon first?

[@davidhood9712]

Ive Been waiting months for this!

[@josephemerson4559]

Been waiting for this one!

[@universe9113]

launch the Saturn C8 and the N1 at the same time, one from the KSC and the other from the KSC 2 easter egg, see which one is faster

[@cyrushunt2406]

I tried to use the Saturn V parts and they were too heavy to move the vehicle off the ground, so I gave up on that and keep using the tried and true rocket I built when I actually got the hang of the game for everything.

[@owl-bowl4984]

Finely new ksp video 😀

[@alrightydave]

Well, in KSP you can easily do a direct ascent Mun mission with an expendable 2.5M Falcon Heavy. No messing around with even a 5M Saturn V!

[@danpettersson4671]

Thank you for the entertainment, as well as for the history lesson.

[@tomvorat4173]

How about a N1 2.0?

[@quintinkrivacek9800]

I live 2 hours north of KSC and have only been there once for a launch (Falcon Heavy Arabsat-6A). Next time I'm going to take a whole day or whatever so I can see the Saturn V and just ogle over every square inch of it.

[@danieldu1026]

What you should have done when you “unhacked” gravity was to burn prograde until the orbit was circular then burn prograde to the mun. Doesn’t the rocket have wayyyyy extra delta v

[@hhfireworks9294]

This rocket looks a bitlike the sovjet N1, just not that much engines...

[@gyrobyte626]

whats the sovjet, a plane

[@michael3147]

great video! i love your videos

[@Adam-um4oi]

Matt I finished year 11 yesterday so know I have 12 weeks to watch all of your old videos

[@fazepigeon]

So so so so cool

[@sondrevatland2720]

6:58 WOAH THAT WAS COOL!

[@hoomee37]

2:08 oh my heart

[@masterful7574]

Intresting is not a word.

[@antarfodoh]

Even if it takes mods, think you could do (I think VonBraun's, nuclear) Mars mission?

[@demonicchild.9760]

Me: cannot even go into orbit. Matt lowne: *can go to the moon*

[@KingWashington1776]

Matt Lowne u should do a Duna mission with the Saturn 8 next week

[@yes.6694]

Wow, this video is great. Keep up the good work ;)

[@thestargateking]

Since you like rescue missions, at least I like watching them and you seem to enjoy making them I’ve got a scenario for you, I don’t have KSP so I can only describe what happened Scenario: a multi planet expedition had their landing craft arrive on duna, there was only one crew capsule, while on duna there was a dust storm, this dust storm damaged the ships life support and power generation technology, the ship had only a few weeks of oxygen left Due to the fact that they came from kerbin the location of kerbin was poor for a interplanetary transport window, and to fly in front of kerbin and wait would take too long for the time they had left, because they were on a interplanetary mission the ship had a lot of fuel They didnt have much time to calculate the delta V they had and the journey so they pointed and shot towards kerbin, they are currently traveling the opposite direction to the orbit of kerbin, their plan was to slingshot from the mün and get close enough to kerbin To be rescued, or even have enough delta v to slow down themselves enough to successfully reenter the atmosphere, sacrificing the main rocket stage of necessary, but unfortunately they did not have enough delta V, their course won’t even reach the mün sphere of influence. They are also traveling at a slower speed than what they need. your mission, either launch a craft that can rescue them and provide oxygen or launch 2 crafts one to provide new life support systems that can get there faster and then a second to then slow them down and recover. I drew a map on twitter when I first made the scenario, don’t know if you have seen it or not. I think it will be interesting to try a different rescue mission that’s on a craft in the interplanetary void, and to add a challenge have the vessel traveling the wrong way in interplanetary space.

[@MattLowne]

Sounds like you put a lot of thought into this! Though it sounds more like somthing Cupcake landers would do, maybe you should suggest this plot to him!

[@thestargateking]

Matt Lowne it didn’t take me long to think of the story behind it

[@samevans8922]

I massively prefer Saturn style rockets to ones with asparagus staging.

[@ethanjacobson4141]

The most egregious historical inaccuracy is the Gemini pod