NASA engineers tested parts of the legendary Saturn V rocket engine in Huntsville, Ala. on Thursday which originally helped land the first men on the moon.

The teams of scientists for the space agency are currently working on building America's next big deep-space rocket which included a test-fired gas generator from an original Saturn V F-1 engine that had been stored at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., according to Space.com.

The engine, which is known as No. F-6049, was supposed to help propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two other astronauts to the moon for the first time. The flight went off without a hitch, but the engine had some troubles.

The engine was grounded because of a glitch during a test and later sent to the museum where it has remained ever since.

Now engineers are learning to work with technical systems and propellants not used since before the start of the space shuttle program, which first launched in 1981.

Thursday's test used one part of the engine, the gas generator, which powers the machinery to pump propellant into the main rocket chamber.

It doesn't produce the massive orange flame or clouds of smoke like that of a whole F-1, but the sound was deafening as engineers fired the mechanism in an outdoor test stand on a cool, sunny afternoon.

"My wife and daughter were in our front yard and she said they could hear it, which was pretty cool," said Nick Case, one of the NASA engineers performing the tests said, according to Yahoo News. "We live about 15 miles away."

There are currently no plans to send the old engine into space, but it could become a template for a new generation of motors incorporating parts of the design, according to NASA.

Tags
NASA