F-1 engine test fire 1/17 @ 2:00 (Huntsville: 2013, centers, train)

[DaMadHatter]

NASA - Rocket Testing Heats Up at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center for Space Launch System

[GentleVoice]

is this going to rattle our timbers in South Huntsville? I'm almost getting used to it

[Southlander]

I love it - it's the sound of money.

[DaMadHatter]

My mistake... It's not a test firing of the rocket engine but rather a real-time firing of the F-1 Gas Generator. I'm not real sure what that means

[GregW]

The F-1 is the largest liquid fuel rocket motor ever built. The Saturn moon rocket used 5 of them for the first stage. The launch could be heard tens of miles away.

The F-1 gas generator was the device that burned rocket fuel, RP-4 and Liquid Oxygen, to create the gasses that drover the turbine that pumped the fuels into the F-1 motor. The turbine generated around 200,000 Hp. It will be loud but it will not be an F-1 Engine test.

[HB2HSV]

The F-1 engine was used in the first stage of Saturn rockets during the Apollo missions to the moon. It is the biggest engine that the U.S. ever built and flown. The Russian has the RD-170 that is slightly bigger than F-1 in term of thrust. That engine is/was used on the Sea Launch but not sure if that company still exist. A derivative of Rd-170, called the RD-180, is about half of thrust is currently power the U.S. made Atlas rocket. So, this is more than what you want to know for sure.

It is exciting to see that NASA is reviving the technology on the F-1 engine and train the next generation of rocket engineers. Think of the function of a GG as turbocharger on your hotrod, it functions the same but work & built differently. It generates high pressure gases to turn a pump that powers the engine.

Just a warning, burning kerosene at this condition will be very sooty, so you can probably see black smoke coming out of the Arsenal. Do not be alarmed. It's just rocket scientists doing their things.