Saturn I with Pegasus

This is my first upload to the simplerockets website! Yay!

The Saturn I (pronounced "Saturn one") was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to 20,000-pound (9,100 kg) low Earth orbit payloads. The rocket's first stage used a cluster of propellant tanks taken from older rocket designs strapped together, leading critics to jokingly refer to it as "Cluster's Last Stand". Originally intended as a near-universal military booster for use in the 1960s, its development was taken over from the Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1958 by the newly-formed civillian NASA. Its design proved sound and flexible. It was successful in initiating the developent of liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket propulsion, launching the Pegasus satellites, and flight verification of the Apollo command and service module launch phase aerodynamics. Ten Saturn I rockets were flown before it was replaced by the heavy lift derivative Saturn IB, which used a larger, higher total impulse second stage and an improved guidance and control system. It also led the way to development of the super-heavy lift Saturn V which carried the first men to landings on the Moon in the Apollo program.

President John F. Kennedy identified the Saturn I, and the SA-5 launch in particular, as being the point where US lift capability would surpass the Soviets, after being behind since Sputnik.

The Pegasus satellite program was a series of three American satellites launched in 1965 to study the frequency of micrometeorite impacts on spacecraft. All three Pegasus satellites were launched by Saturn I rockets, and remained connected with their upper stages.

Use activation group 9 and the slider to deploy solar panels. If the ascent profile you use is too efficient, this rocket could probably reach the moon.