The Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, so violent at liftoff that its first launch shattered ceiling tiles in a control room three miles away — and more than half a century after it carried astronauts to the Moon, nothing humanity has built has matched it.

The Saturn V remains the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, so violent at liftoff that its first launch shattered ceiling tiles in a control room three miles away — and more than half a century after it carried astronauts to the Moon, nothing humanity has built has matched it.

Exclusive Photos – We Got Right Up Close to the Saturn V Rocket at Kennedy Space Center: When the United States entered the Space Race, they were coming from behind. The Soviet Union had bested them in the first and second rounds. Soviet science and engineering propelled the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. As if that wasn’t painful enough for the Americans, the Soviets got the first human into Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin. …