Holdown Arrms, Prototype, Saturn I, Set of Four

This is a set of four matching prototype Block 1 Saturn I Hold-Down Arms used to restrain the giant launch vehicle after its ignition until sufficient thrust had been reached for lift-off. They are shown around the Saturn 1 Block 1 development version of the Saturn 1. Later, eight hold-down arms were used on the operational Saturn 1 vehicle. The prototype arms were developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The first time the complete eight Saturn 1 arms were used perationally was during the launch of the first Saturn 1 (SA-1) from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 27 October 1961. The arms shown here were transferred to the Smithsonian from the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center in 1980.