Against the flame and roar of Saturn's huge 30 million horsepower
super-booster is the scientist who directed computation of the
test-firing results, Dr. Helmut Hoelzer, with a model of the
IBM 7090 computer that enabled his space-team associates to
explore new areas of rocket engine research. At the time of
this June 1960 photograph, Hoelzer was director of the Computation
Division at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville,
Ala., where this test of Saturn's eight-engine super-booster
took place that month. The IBM 7090 was to apply the most powerful
computing ability in the U.S. space program of the time to analysis
of rocket vibration, heat transfer and dozens of other elements.