This week in 1962, the first full-thrust, long-duration F-1 engine test was successfully conducted. The F-1 engine was developed by Rocketdyne under the direction of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and was propelled by a mixture of RP-1, a type of kerosene, and liquid oxygen. The engine was used in a cluster of five engines to propel the Saturn V rocket’s first stage, the S-IC stage. Each engine produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust. Here, the F-1 engine is test-fired at Test Stand 1-C at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Now through December 2022, NASA will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program that landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972, and the first U.S. crewed mission — Apollo 8 — that circumnavigated the Moon in December 1968. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)