A view of the Apollo Saturn rocket AS 501 on the launch pad before the the first, unmanned, test launch of the Apollo programmeApollo 4, 9 November 1967Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based paper, 20.5 x 25.3 cm (8 x 10 in), with A KODAK PAPER watermarks on the versoFootnotes:During the 11-hour mission, designated Apollo 4, the Saturn showed itself to be a worthy flying machine - wee news in the worst year of NASA's brief historyFlight-testing the giant rocket 'all-up' rather than in pieces - a gamble by NASA managers - probably saved months in the race to land humans on the Moon (Chaikin, Space, pp. 49/79)