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SPACE NOWHistory

The past behind what's next.

Object

Engine annunciator, Saturn V

An instrument panel that reported the state of individual Saturn V engines — the interface through which a problem in a 7.5-million-pound-thrust first stage became something a human could read.

  • Revision: 1
  • Dates: 1967-11-09 (day precision)
  • Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
  • Status: Preserved in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection
  • asset-library: asset_e8c6fcb23e200c5218ee

The object

Full frame first: the source before any crop, zoom or annotation.

An engine annunciator panel from a Saturn V launch vehicle, a rectangular instrument face with labelled indicator windows for individual engines.
Present day Preserved in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection.Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSource: canonical item pageRights: CC0; AUTO_USABLE (evidence recorded 2026-08-10)Transforms: autorotate — EXIF orientation applied where present; resize — fit within 640 px wide, aspect preserved, no enlargement; encode — AVIF quality 55

What this object shows

That the enormous power of the first stage was mediated to the crew and controllers through a small number of discrete indicator windows, one per engine.

Orientation

Role: Engine status indication

Chronology

  1. day precisionEngine annunciator, Saturn V enters the record.

Related records

  • reports on

    How did seven and a half million pounds of thrust become something a person could read?

    Confidence: high · 1967-11-09 (day precision)

  • relates to

    The engine, and the panel that reported on it.

    Confidence: high · 1967-11-09 (day precision)

Inspect the record1 assertion, each with its source

  • Engine annunciator, Saturn V is held in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection; the rendition shown here is exported from that catalogued record with its credit and rights basis recorded.

    Source class: museum collection recordSmithsonian National Air and Space Museum collectionView the source

CorrectionsNone recorded

No corrections recordedThis record has not been corrected since it was published.