This year marks the 50th anniversary of human space flight and President Kennedy's "Moon Shot." 1961 also was the year in which the Saturn V rocket - the greatest machine ever built - began to take shape.
The Saturn V was, and still is, the largest object to leave the surface of the Earth. At 363 feet in height - or over 30 stories tall - the rocket weighed 6.3 million pounds, about the weight of 1,600 automobiles or 50 Boeing 747s. As of today, the Saturn V is taller than any building in Alaska, Delaware or 13 other states.
The creation of the Saturn V Rocket required not just technical prowess but radical supply chain innovation.
