Your link leads nowhere. That's not what we see on NASA's website.
Sorry about that and the values I gave were actual measurements from the
Apollo 10 mission!
The maximum velocity of the Saturn V on the Apollo 10 mission was 10,840 m/s (or 6.74 miles/second) at the end of the TLI burn 333 km above earth.
As noted above it was not attempting to escape the earth's gravitational field but reach the moon's.
The escape velocity from 333 km above earth is 10,904 m/s (or 6.78 miles/second), lower than from the earth's surface.
And the maximum velocity was never quite as high as the escape velocity.
These values are from page 3-29 of Document Apollo/Saturn V Postflight Trajectory AS-505.
It clearly says the following on NASA's website.
https://history.nasa.gov/SP-368/s1ch2.htm"The crew checked out the spacecraft, and, after approximately three hours in Earth orbit, the Saturn IV-B stage was fired for approximately five minutes to accelerate the spacecraft to an Earth-gravity escape velocity of 40 233 km/hr (25 000 mph) to begin its 370 149 km (230 000 mile) coast to the moon. Following the translunar injection maneuver, the Apollo spacecraft was separated from the Saturn IV-B stage."
https://images.nasa.gov/details-0100983.html"The S-IVB restarted to speed the Apollo spacecraft to escape velocity injecting it and the astronauts into a moon trajectory."
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-the-journey-to-the-moon-begins"Two hours and 44 minutes after liftoff, the third stage engine ignited for the six-minute TLI burn, increasing the spacecraft’s velocity to more than 24,000 miles per hour, enough to escape Earth’s gravity."
Apollo 15 Flight Journal
https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap15fj/03tde.htmlThe stack is 40 metres long and 6.6 metres at its widest, weighing over 65 metric tonnes; not an insubstantial load to have propelled away from Earth at escape velocity.
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But look at the actual velocities given:
Apollo 15 Transposition, Docking and Extraction
Public Affairs Officer - "Velocity dropped off somewhat from the initial cut-off velocity of 35,000 and some odd feet per second [10,600 m/s] down to 30,436 feet per second [9,276.9 m/s].
is 2,3712 mph.
Popular mechanics:
Instead, the remaining structure continued to orbit Earth until a "go/no-go" decision was made by Mission Control in Houston. At that time, the third-stage rocket, technically known as an S-IVB, reignited and achieved "translunar injection." Once escape velocity, the speed needed to overcome Earth's gravity, or 24,500 mph, was achieved, the S-IVB was discarded as well.
to the center of the earth.
Note that the
Popular Mechanics gives "the speed needed to overcome Earth's gravity, or 24,500 mph" not the "25,000 mph" quoted earlier for escape velocity.
I think I'll go by the actual velocities quoted and not information as in the document for Apollo 11:
APOLLO/SATURN V POSTFLIGHT TRAJECTORY - AS-506That 10,843 m/s is 24,255 mph still below, but close to escape velocity.
...
They are clearly claiming to reach escape velocity of the Earth's gravity to inject into a trans lunar orbit. In order to reach escape velocity, it must be done in relation to the center of the earth.
I'll grant that some public statements do say that they have to reach "escape velocity" and the figures I found were close.
But I'm more concerned with your claims of "in straight flight relationship from the center of the earth" because there is no such requirement.
A spacecraft could, and many do, leave the earth from a near-circular orbit by applying a burn to achieve a velocity high enough to leave earth.
Where do they say this?
They needed to get the craft traveling at 7 miles per second in straight light relationship from the center of the earth.
And that "7 miles per second" you keep quoting is only an approximate figure for the escape velocity from the earth's surface but no spacecraft would do that.
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