National Geographic mistakes high powered model Saturn V rocket picture as real?

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bzzh8c

bzzh8c

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Hey - LOOK AT THIS!

Check out pages 108/109 in the new National Geographic "100 Inventions that Changed the World" issue (April 2015).
Am I seeing this right?
It looks like they've got a picture of a high powered Saturn V model launch from a cornfield as the photo of the real Saturn V!
On the opposite side they show the actual rocket a couple of minutes into flight (nearing 1st stage burnout).


Model Saturn V.jpg


Todd
 
Journalism at its finest! Todays media really stinks. Between letting spell check programs do the work to the news calling Harrison Ford's PT-22 a WWII fighter, the media is at an all time low.
 
319a148b-e969-40e6-94b5-d190bdad822b.png


jiFfM.jpg
 
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Wow. That is bad. I can't wait to get my issue. I wonder how many letters they have received so far.
 
Is that the regular April 2015 issue for subscribers? Or is it a spacial "100 Inventions" issue on newsstands and in stores? I've got a subscription, but I don't get the special issues.
 
The amazing thing is that National Geographic is so well known for their amazing photographs. How could they not know this was not a real Saturn V photo? And also how could they think it was one of the BEST Saturn V photos? It's a really good HPR photo, but it doesn't compare to some of the great real photos.
 
For those who like to dump on the USPS (not me but I know you're out there), a few years ago, they had a Statue of Liberty stamp showing the face and crown shot from below. Trouble was, it was the on in Las Vegas not the one in NY Harbor.

Didn't make too much difference; it still got the letters delivered.
 
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Reading about the statute off liberty goof the artist sued for a lot of money... I'm just saying
 
If you guys don't mind, I think I will reserve my judgement until I read the article. It very well may mention Steve Eves model and give credit where credit is due.
 
cherokeej said:
If you guys don't mind, I think I will reserve my judgement until I read the article. It very well may mention Steve Eves model and give credit where credit is due.
Click to expand...

That's certainly fair, but if you expand the picture of the page above, you can pretty much read the photo captions and text of the article, and it looks like they are talking about the real thing, not a model.

In fact, you inspired me to read the article just now, and I found a fact error to add to the photo error. It says, "Once shut down, the third stage was designed to be restarted for the trip back to Earth." WRONG! It's true the third stage was designed to be restarted for a second burn. But the first burn was for insertion into Earth orbit, and the second was for the flight from earth orbit to the moon. Then the third stage was discarded. To return to earth, they used the propulsive system of the service module, not the Saturn V third stage.
 
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Wow. So did someone just grab a picture quickly without looking? I guess if you're really not paying attention the flat horizon looks like Florida and the plant life could be mistaken for sawgrass...
 
Jackball74 said:
Wow. So did someone just grab a picture quickly without looking? I guess if you're really not paying attention the flat horizon looks like Florida and the plant life could be mistaken for sawgrass...
Click to expand...

But what about the EZ-Ups?
 
This is pretty astonishing for a publication like NG. At least they goofed with a pretty spectacular "model" rocket flight. I wonder if this means that, to the general population, the Saturn V, the still undefeated and undisputed World Champion rocket, is receding into the mythical past ?
 
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This is from a special issue National Geographic that is on newstands now (Apr 2015)
Nowhere in the article do they mention model rockets, and I also don't think this one is Steve's (it looks smaller).
I think it's just what the folks above have suggested, someone just snagged a sharp looking picture of a Saturn V...... model.

Now I'm curious to figure out whose rocket this is, what the cluster engine load was, and how it fared. Anybody know?
It'd be pretty cool if they weren't aware their rocket was featured in NG - not too many folks outside NASA and SpaceX can say that!
 
Unfortunately yes, our shared history is blurring already. The people who worked on the Saturn V are long since retired. Even the current editors of NatGeo are possibly too young to remember the real thing, so they cannot distinguish it from a fantastic HPR launch. I hope the error doesn't propagate forward a few centuries.
 
bzzh8c said:
... and I also don't think this one is Steve's (it looks smaller)...
Click to expand...

You know what, you may be correct. As I looked there are some differences between Steve's rocket and the one in NatGeo. The geometry of the fins are different and the pad tower is different. But when I saw the pic I thought it had to be Steve's because, how many ginormous HPR Saturn V's can there be, right?

It may be Vern Hoag's Saturn V, which was 15 feet tall (1/24th scale?) whereas Steve Eves' Saturn V was 1/10th scale and 36 feet tall. I know that Vern's Saturn V was launched at least once. It occured at MidWest Power '07 outside of Princeton, Illinois. According to an article in "Extreme Rocketry" (vol. 70) reporting on MidWest Power 2007 it had 1 x AT M1850W + 4 x AMW L777W for motors.

Perhaps someone can chime in and say something definitive.

Greg
 
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GregGleason said:
You know what, you may be correct. As I looked there are some differences between Steve's rocket and the one in NatGeo. The geometry of the fins are different and the pad tower is different. But when I saw the pic I thought it had to be Steve's because, how many ginormous HPR Saturn V's can there be, right?

It may be Vern Hoag's Saturn V, which was 15 feet tall (1/24th scale?) whereas Steve Eves' Saturn V was 1/10th scale and 36 feet tall. I know that Vern's Saturn V was launched at least once. It occured at MidWest Power '08 outside of Princeton, Illinois. According to an article in "Extreme Rocketry" (vol. 70) reporting on MidWest Power '08 it had 1 x AT M1850W + 4 x AMW L777W for motors.

Perhaps someone can chime in and say something definitive.

Greg
Click to expand...

Greg, I think you are correct. Look at the text by Steve Jurvetson and notice that he referenced "Vern's" rocket. BTW, that was a fantastic photo you posted of the "real deal"! Here's more about Mr. Jurvetson. https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jurvetson_on_model_rocketry
 
I saw this while waiting in line at Walgreens, but it was popular science, not national geographic, or are they the same thing?
 
Now that April 1 has passed ...

Well done, Todd!

-- Roger
 

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