page_title: Saturn V
section_title: S-IVB third stage
hierarchical_section_title: Saturn V / Technology / Stages / S-IVB third stage
caption_attribution_description: English: This cutaway illustration shows the Saturn V S-IVB (third) stage with the callouts of its major components. When the S-II (second) stage of the powerful Saturn V rocket burnt out and was separated the remaining units approached orbit around the Earth. Injection into the desired orbit was attained as the S-IVB (third stage) was ignited and burnt. The S-IVB stage was powered by a single 200,000-pound thrust J-2 engine and had a re-start capability built in for its J-2 engine. The S-IVB restarted to speed the Apollo spacecraft to escape velocity injecting it and the astronauts into a moon trajectory.
context_page_description: Saturn V was an American super heavy-lift launch vehicle certified for human-rating used by NASA between 1967 and 1973. It consisted of three stages, each fueled by liquid propellants. It was developed to support the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon and was later used to launch Skylab, the first American space station.
  The Saturn V was launched 13 times from Kennedy Space Center with no loss of crew or payload. As of 2020, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low Earth orbit of 310,000 lb, which included the third stage and unburned propellant needed to send the Apollo command and service module and Lunar Module to the Moon.
  As the largest production model of the Saturn family of rockets, the Saturn V was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors.
  To date, the Saturn V remains the only launch vehicle to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit.
context_section_description: The S-IVB was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company at Huntington Beach, California. It had one J-2 engine and used the same fuel as the S-II. The S-IVB used a common bulkhead to separate the two tanks. It was 58.6 feet (17.86 m) tall with a diameter of 21.7 feet (6.604 m) and was also designed with high mass efficiency, though not quite as aggressively as the S-II. The S-IVB had a dry weight of about 23,000 pounds (10,000 kg) and, fully fueled, weighed about 262,000 pounds (119,000 kg).
  The S-IVB was the only rocket stage of the Saturn V small enough to be transported by Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy.
caption: Cutaway drawing of the Saturn V S-IVB
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