A rare Rocketdyne F-1 Ball Valve, a large component associated with the gas generator for the mighty F-1 engines of the Apollo Saturn V. This heavy piece of early rocketry hardware features a 7.5″ outer valve rim, the interior mouth of which measures approximately 5″ in diameter, and two worn Rocketdyne parts labels marked “Dual Ball Valve, Part No. EO R62819” and “Gas Gen Assy, Part No. EWR 285763,” both of which are rated as 1200 PSI. The gas generator was one of the first parts designed for a new F-1 engine as it was a crucial component that ultimately determined a rocket engine’s size. Like a rocket motor inside a rocket motor, the gas generator served as an internal combustion engine that drove the whole F-1 engine.
Produced in the United States by Rocketdyne in the late 1950s and used in the 1960s and early 1970s, the F-1 rocket engine remains the highest-thrust engine that NASA has ever flown. Built by the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation, the F-1 burned RP-1, a refined form of kerosene, and liquid oxygen. The engine's 2,500-pound turbopump produced more than 20,000 horsepower and could pump 42,500 gallons of propellant per minute. A cluster of five F-1 engines, each producing a maximum thrust of 1.5 million pounds, powered the first stage (designated S1-C) of the colossal Saturn V launch vehicle that carried American astronauts to the moon between 1969 and 1972.
