Posted on 04/17/2023 7:11:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin
When Apollo astronauts blasted off ...they did so with more than 3.2 miles (5.1km) separating them from... onlooking crowds.
Nasa's measurements at the time captured the launch noise at 204 decibels... Even 1.5 miles (2.4km) away, the noise from a Saturn V launch was recorded as being 120 decibels – as loud as a rock concert, or a car horn at very close quarters.
Was Saturn V the loudest rocket ever launched? Probably not, if you use thrust as your guide. The 35MN (meganewtons) of force produced by Saturn V at launch is less than that produced by the Soviet Union's ill-fated N1 rocket (45MN)... Rockets as powerful as Saturn V were capable of causing damage to themselves just from the soundwaves generated from the noise of their own launch.
One solution: the fire trenches in the launch pad are filled with water which helps muffle some of the intense noise created when the rocket lifts off.
SLS is the new rocket used in the Artemis programme – the one planned to take humanity further into the Solar System than ever before. It became one of the most powerful rockets ever launched with 15% more thrust than Saturn V.
Brigham Young University and Rollins College in Florida studied recordings from the SLS during the Artemis 1 launch in November 2022 found... at 0.9 miles (1.5km) from the launchpad, the maximum noise level reached 136 decibels while at 3.2 miles (5.2km) it was 129 decibels.
SpaceX's Starship vehicle – intended for a proposed mission to Mars – will lift off on top of the company's Super Heavy booster. Super Heavy will, according to SpaceX, generate nearly 76MN of thrust, more than twice that of Saturn V. If you're planning on watching it take off, earplugs sound like a very good idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Ummm, loud?
33 engines will be loud.
The cool thing is the very unique “Crackle” to it.
Loud enough to shake your whole body. It is impressive
Barely 12 years old when Apollo 11 launched, from our yard in south St. Petersburg, we could see the Saturn V launches about 90 seconds after main engines started, and we could HEAR the things too. Don’t recall how long after but it was like the sound of every Independence Day fireworks display of my life all at once.
My sister lives off the Intracoastal waterway by Grant/Valkaria and watches launches from her porch - with earplugs and ear muffs.
I remember a remark from a FReeper some years ago, he was mowing his lawn, in a state adjacent to Florida, and when one of the Saturn V launches (either Apollo or the initial Skylab launch; subsequent Skylab launches and Apollo-Soyuz used Saturn IB I think) got high enough that there was line-of-sight, he could hear it in the distance.
So much for “secret launches of the Saturn V” found in the ridiculous fringe scribblings.
elon musk rocks out LOUD
I was present at many Space Shuttle main engine tests back in the day. They were a lot smaller than the J-2’s and it was only one engine firing at a time, but it was plenty loud and shook the earth pretty good.
Launch a Saturn V Rocket Right From Your Browser
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a26063312/apollo-guidance-computer-simulator-moonjs/
3 hots and a cot-—may as well stay in prixy.
I was fortunate to witness every Apollo launch, 11-17.
For the Apollo 17 night launch, I was just north of the Vehicle Assembly Bldg., 3.4 miles from the launchpad.
As a kid it felt like my heart and lungs were going to rattle out of my ribs!
Rolling Rock?
The family loaded up and we watched Apollo 16 launch. There is no way a video can even begin to capture the reality of a Saturn 5 lighting off. The Earth shakes and multiple sonic booms roll over you head. Birds rocket over your head getting out of Dodge.
I strongly recommend going and watching one of the large rocket launches.
I heard the first Saturn V launch, from inside the house, 120 miles away. Stopped watching it on TV and went outside to see it!
Since bought out by AB, so now on the crap list.
When I was a kid at my parents' house near New Orleans, I could hear the low rumble of the Rocketdyne engines for the Apollo program being tested at Stennis, Mississippi - about forty miles away, as the crow flies. It would make the glass shelves in my mom's china cabinet buzz. I found out years later when visiting Stennis, that those were just single engine tests; multi-engine tests of the big first stage were done at Huntsville.
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