Powerful rocket engines

[Kenj]

Did you follow the Apollo programme? 

The rockets on the Apollo 11 were powerful. The five engines created more power than 85 hoover dams. The sound of the launch was so intense that they had to dump 3m litres of water onto the pad every minute just to dampen the sound waves so they couldn’t bounce back up and destroy the rocket. They have a large water tank near the launch pad to supply the water.

Imagine then being one of the astronauts aboard Apollo 11. would have to have had a lot of faith in the design and construction of the craft and its support structures.

The power of rockets increased hugely in that era. As a point of interest, in 1957, Sputnik's rocket output 188,000 pounds of thrust. A huge amount then. Today, one of General Electric's GE9X engines puts out 134,000 pounds of thrust. (Different principle, I know, as one requires air going through it and the other carries its own propellant environment.)

The American way of describing things is amusing, as long as 3 school buses, as big as 2 football fields and the meteor that was heading to Earth in January was the size of a large moving truck. Hoover Dam power comparison is a new one on me!