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from the Smithsonian website
When Apollo began, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union possessed a rocket powerful enough to send humans to the Moon and back. Both the Americans and the Soviets had to develop a super-booster, or Moon rocket. The United States succeeded with the mighty Saturn V.
Saturn V is the largest rocket booster ever built by the United States. This rocket, a 3-stage, liquid-fueled launch vehicle, was designed to propel a crew of three astronauts and Apollo spacecraft on their way to the Moon. These giant rockets were used only 11 times, on Apollo missions 8 through 17 and for the Skylab Orbital Workshop.
Rocket Specifications
Height: 110 meters (363 feet)
Weight at liftoff: 2,767,000 kilograms (6,100,000 pounds)
Thrust at liftoff: 33.4 million newtons (3.4 million kilograms; 7.5 million pounds)
Developed by: Dr. Wernher von Braun at NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
F-1 Engine
The F-1 engine was developed to provide propulsion for the Saturn V rocket used during the Apollo lunar landing missions. Developed during the early 1960s, the Saturn V rocket was the largest rocket in the world and the F-1 was the most powerful rocket engine.
The first of the 3 stages of the Saturn Rocket (S-IC) was powered by a cluster of five F-1 engines developing a total of 33.4 million newtons (3.4 million kilograms; 7.5 million pounds) of thrust at liftoff. They burned 2,021,000 liters (534,000 gallons) of liquid propellants in the 2½ minutes before first stage burnout. By then the big rocket had reached 9,660 kilometers per hour (6,000 miles per hour) and an altitude of 61 kilometers (38 miles).
Engine Specifications
Length: 5.6 meters (18 feet 4 inches)
Maximum diameter: 5.6 meters (11 feet 11 inches)
Weight: 8200 kilograms (18,000 pounds)
Maximum thrust at sea level: 690,000 kilograms (1,522,000 pounds)
Propellants: Liquid oxygen and kerosene
Manufacturer: Rocketdyne, A Division of North American Rockwell Corporation
The five clustered F-1 engines provided propulsion solely for the first stage of the rocket, while J-2 engines provided propulsion for both upper stages (five on the S-II second stage, one on the S-IVB third stage).