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| An early Saturn program cover commemorating the transition of America's Saturn super-booster program from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency to NASA, postmarked at Huntsville, Alabama, with a machine cancel on November 4, 1959, signed by Wernher von Braun. |
Project Saturn had begun under the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and was being developed by Wernher von Braun's team at ABMA in Huntsville, Alabama. The vehicle was conceived as a 1.5-million-pound-thrust heavy-lift booster, initially using a cluster of eight H-1 engines. ARPA officially named the project Saturn on February 3, 1959.
On October 21, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the plan to transfer ABMA's Development Operations Division and responsibility for Saturn to NASA. NASA was to assume responsibility for the nation's super-booster program, while the Army would continue supporting the operation during the transition.
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| Photo: Dr. Wernher Von Braun at ceremonies transferring the Saturn barge to the Civilian Space Agency, December 13, 1960. |
The Huntsville organization, led by Wernher von Braun, was responsible for developing the new 1.5-million-pound-thrust Saturn super booster. Although the formal transfer did not take place until March 1960, NASA assumed technical direction of Saturn during the interim. The Huntsville team subsequently became the core of NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and went on to develop the Saturn launch vehicles used in the Apollo program.
