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Photos: Apollo rocket engines raised off seafloor by Amazon CEO

March 20, 2013

— Long thought to be lost forever on the ocean floor, the massive engines that launched astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago have been recovered by a private expedition led by the founder of Amazon.com.

"We found so much," said Jeff Bezos, the online retailer's CEO, in an update he posted Wednesday (March 20) on the Bezos Expeditions website. "We have seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program."

When NASA's Saturn V rockets were launched on missions to Earth orbit and the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the five F-1 engines that powered each of the boosters' first stages dropped into the Atlantic Ocean and sank to the sea floor. There they were expected to remain, discarded forever...

Continue reading here: Apollo F-1 engines raised off ocean floor by Amazon CEO

  


Photos and video: Bezos Expeditions



Bezos Expeditions team members inspect an F-1 engine thrust chamber after recovering the Apollo Saturn V artifact off the ocean floor.




An F-1 engine's gas generator and manifold as recovered from 14,000 feet below the ocean's surface by Bezos Expeditions.




A Bezos Expeditions team member sprays clean water on a recovered Apollo F-1 engine's injector and liquid oxygen (LOX) dome.




Bezos Expeditions workers clean a nozzle hat band from a recovered F-1 engine that launched one of 13 Apollo Saturn V missions.




The heat exchanger from an F-1 engine raised in March 2013 after more than 40 years sitting on the Atlantic Ocean's floor.




An F-1 engine turbine sits on the deck of the Seabed Worker, a multi-purpose support vessel, which was used to raise the F-1 parts.




Bezos Expeditions team members wash down the thrust chamber and fuel manifold of a recovered Apollo Saturn V's F-1 engine.




The thrust chamber from an F-1 engine is seen on the ocean floor, where it sat for more than 40 years until being recovered in 2013.




The nozzle from an Apollo Saturn V rocket's F-1 engine is seen crumpled and twisted lying on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.




In addition to recovering the parts for two engines, Bezos Expeditions found segments of the Apollo Saturn V booster's S-IC first stage.


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