“Houston, We Have a Solution: The Assessment, Documentation, and Treatment of the Saturn V Rocket Located at the Johnson Space Center”

American Institute for Conservation, Minneapolis, MN, June 2005
NACE Conference 2005, Houston, TX, April 2005
APTI Conference, Galveston, TX, November 2004

Speakers: Joseph Sembrat and Patty Miller
Authors: Joseph Sembrat, Patty Miller, and Anna Vignetti

ABSTRACT

The Saturn V Rocket is an icon of the space age, immortalizing America’s historic race to the moon. Of the three examples of Saturn V rockets that remain, the one located at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas is the only one composed of actual flight-ready equipment. The five stages of the rocket were built in the late 1960’s for the abandoned Apollo 18 and 19 missions and to serve as back up for the Skylab missions. The Saturn V rocket has been on loan to NASA from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum since 1977, when it was assembled for display at JSC Rocket Park.  Since then it has remained outdoors, exposed to the elements.

The Saturn V rocket is a remarkable assemblage of “space age” materials; plastic, rubber, Mylar, polyurethane foam, aluminum, titanium and stainless steel are just some of the materials incorporated into the components of each stage.  Long-term exposure to the Houston climate of high humidity, high temperature, high ozone concentrations, salt air, and chemical pollution has caused extensive corrosion of metals and thermal and biological degradation of all of the materials. In an effort to eliminate pests such as mice and birds, chicken wire and other visually intrusive materials have been affixed to the rocket. Previous attempts to “spruce up” the rocket have included repainting of the exterior, repairs made with inappropriate fill materials, and the addition of decals to replace previously painted-on identification.

Conservation Solutions, Inc. (CSI) was awarded the contract to restore the rocket by the Smithsonian Institution with a grant from the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures and additional private funding from Houston Endowment, Boeing, and Lockheed-Martin. The work includes the erection of a temporary climate-controlled building at JSC to house the rocket until a permanent facility can be built; documentation and assessment of the existing condition of the rocket; design and execution of a testing program to evaluate the effectiveness of various repair treatments; the development of an electronic data management system to aid in the input and retrieval of information gathered during the project; and the stabilization and conservation of the rocket to arrest its decay and make it suitable for presentation.

Common practice in the field of aeronautic preservation has been the restoration of aircraft using treatments that are both intrusive and extensive to bring the equipment back to a “like new” condition. This paper will describe how CSI, with a team of materials scientists and engineers, industry professionals, and data management specialists, is raising the grade of aeronautic preservation by applying the ethics and standards of museum quality conservation. The building of a temporary structure with environmental controls to house the rocket will provide the opportunity to develop this approach with a methodology of selective intervention and maximum preservation of original material in keeping with the historical significance of the object.

The adaptability of an object that is 363 feet long and 33 feet in diameter to museum quality conservation standards is contingent on three factors: 1) a thorough assessment and testing program; and 2) a controlled method for storage and management of large quantities of information; and 3) the development and implementation of cost effective ways to arrest the deterioration of a very large artifact within a limited budget.

The adaptability of an object that is 363 feet long and 33 feet in diameter to museum quality conservation standards is contingent on two factors: 1) a thorough assessment and testing program; and 2) a controlled method for storage and management of large quantities of information. Using Boeing’s original nomenclature and reference system, the data collection team designed an approach to data collection that allowed a large amount of data to be rapidly added to digital drawings of the rocket surface. Based on original design drawings, these layouts show the rocket surface ‘unfolded’ into a flat plane. This allowed the placement of a condition on any spot on the rocket, thus greatly simplifying the task of mapping out problem data and on-going conservation treatments.

In order to better understand the mechanisms of decay and help CSI conservators design an appropriate treatment plan for the rocket, a comprehensive testing program was undertaken. The most significant problems affecting the rocket were extensive corrosion of its aluminum components as a result of sustained exposure to soluble salts, microbiological growths, and the deterioration of its protective coating system. The primary focus of the testing program centered around the identification, passivation, and stabilization of soluble salts and microorganisms and the development of a coating system that met the tough EPA Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) restrictions yet provided effective long-term protection of the rocket.

The presentation will address the treatment goals, testing methods, and repair strategies developed by the team, followed by a discussion of the challenges and benefits encountered when working within a large group of specialists.