Family-level launch record combining canonical variants, historical missions, public cadence forecasts, and available payload performance specs.
Historical missions are grouped by actual launch year. Forecast cadence uses family-level launch-rate rows.
| Year | Historical missions | Forecast launches |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | 3 | 0 |
| 1965 | 3 | 0 |
| 1966 | 3 | 0 |
| 1968 | 2 | 0 |
| 1973 | 3 | 0 |
| 1975 | 1 | 0 |
Payload capacity by variant and target orbit when structured capacity rows are available.
| Variant | Orbit | Capacity | Altitude | Inclination | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No performance specsNo structured payload capacity rows are linked to this vehicle family. | |||||
Canonical variants rolled up into this launch vehicle family.
| Variant | Stages | Missions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Saturn IB | Not stated | 8 | Retired |
Saturn I Blk2 | Not stated | 6 | Retired |
Uprated Saturn I | Not stated | 1 | Retired |
Saturn IB |
| May 25, 1973 |
| Apollo 7 Mission | Saturn IB | Oct 11, 1968 |
| Apollo 5 | Saturn IB | Jan 22, 1968 |
| Launch 1966-U06 | Saturn IB | Aug 25, 1966 |
| AS-203 | Uprated Saturn I | Jul 5, 1966 |
Upcoming mission rows with announced launch timing.
| Mission | Variant | Announced |
|---|---|---|
No forecasted missionsNo upcoming announced mission rows are linked to this vehicle family. | ||
Saturn's gravity stretches and squeezes Enceladus, generating heat inside the moon.
The findings from the Webb observations will support upcoming missions such as ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) and future exploration of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Some tiny pieces of ice fall back onto Enceladus's surface, while others escape and form a ring around Saturn that traces Enceladus's orbit.
The ice grains in Saturn’s E ring can be hundreds of years old and may have been altered by space radiation.
Lead author Nozair Khawaja noted that Cassini sampled from Enceladus as it flew through Saturn’s E ring, discovering many organic molecules, including amino acid precursors.
Scientists have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, indicating complex chemical reactions are occurring within its underground ocean.
The tiny ice grains from Enceladus may fall back onto its surface or escape to form a ring around Saturn that traces the moon’s orbit.
Uranus is 19 times farther from the sun than Earth and nearly twice as far as Saturn, requiring a heavy-lift launch vehicle and trajectories with gravity assists from other planets.
MSFC is responsible for the design and manufacturing of the Saturn rocket used in Apollo, the main propulsion system of the Space Shuttle, and the Space Launch System (SLS) utilized in NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program.
The European Space Agency aims to develop an orbiter-lander mission to sample the icy plumes of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Observations of Saturn will be conducted using a 40 cm telescope.
Dragonfly is a nuclear-powered, car-sized rotorcraft built at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) that will explore Saturn's moon Titan over a three-year mission.
Israel is advancing plans for the Eureka space mission, aimed at searching for signs of life on Jupiter's moon Europa and potentially Saturn's Enceladus.
A Saturn IB rocket with an Apollo spacecraft was positioned on the launch pad on December 5, 1973 as a contingency for Skylab 4 and remained there until the Skylab 4 crew returned to Earth.
The Saturn IB and Apollo used as the Skylab 4 contingency were returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building after the mission and later used for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
For Skylab 4 NASA had a Saturn IB rocket with an Apollo spacecraft positioned on the launch pad on December 5, 1973 until the Skylab 4 crew returned to Earth.
The Cassini mission measured sodium carbonate in plumes on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
Antennas built in the Soviet days for the GRU’s Zvezda network were often named after planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flew by the Moon in 1999 en route to Saturn and its infrared spectrometer detected water-bearing minerals at most lunar latitudes with higher concentrations toward the poles.
NASA confirmed the Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s moon Titan with a total lifecycle cost of $3,350,000,000.