Now I'm standing next to the S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V, which provided the energy to get the Apollo spacecraft first into Earth orbit, and then into lunar orbit. The S-IVB stage was jettisoned into a solar orbit once the Apollo spacecraft reached lunar orbit; because of the moon's position in Earth's gravity well, a much smaller rocket built into the Apollo command module was sufficient to return the vehicle to Earth. Starting with Apollo 13, the S-IVB was crashed into the moon's surface; the seismic waves caused by the impact were monitored by radio seismographs left on the surface by the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions.
I think I took this photo just because Apollo 13 had a cool mission patch.
From here we headed onto a bus back to the KSC visitor center, and returned to our usual radio-based entertainments.
Copyright 2011, Garrett Wollman. All rights reserved. Photograph taken 2011-02-26.