On this day in space: March 28, 1963: Last test flight of NASA's Saturn 1 rocket booster

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On March 28, 1963, NASA launched the first stage booster of its new Saturn 1 rocket on a fourth and final test flight.

On March 28, 1963, NASA launched the first stage booster of its new Saturn 1 rocket on a fourth and final test flight. This uncrewed suborbital flight helped pave the way for astronauts to launch to the moon.

a white rocket with black vertical stripes on its first stage lignites its engines next to a red support tower near the seashore

NASA's final test flight of its Saturn I rocket booster, SA-4, lifts off from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 28, 1963. (Image credit: NASA)

This test flight, designated SA-4, carried a dummy second stage to test the aerodynamics of the real second stage.

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Another thing NASA tested during this flight was a new system to deal with engine failure. One of the eight engines was programmed to shut off mid-flight. Fuel from the "failed" engine was then re-routed to the other engines so the rocket could keep going.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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