Was Saturn V the loudest rocket ever launched? Probably not, if you use thrust as your guide. "Every 10 decibels is an order-of-magnitude increase." Two hundred would be 10,000 engines," said Kent Gee, leader author of the study and professor of physics at the Brigham Young University at the time. "One hundred and seventy decibels would be equivalent to 10 aircraft engines. The difference between 160 and 200-odd decibels might not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it is. They came up with a remarkably similar finding to Nasa's own recordings – 203 decibels. Last year, a team of scientists from Brigham Young University in Utah calculated just how loud Saturn V was. After a few seconds, the sound coalesces into a roar, like a massive welding torch." The subsonic bass frequencies make your ears crackle. "You can feel a slight tremble, then a building rumble in your chest before you can hear any actual sound.
"Launches, from up close, are a bit like Sensurround," says Rue. "Back in the 1970s there was an audio device called Sensurround that was used in disaster movies like Earthquake to create a subsonic seismic 'experience' in the theatre.
"I'm always struck by the physicality of a launch," says Anthony Rue, a Florida café owner who has been watching and photographing launches since the days of Saturn V. Even 1.5 miles (2.4km) away, the noise from a Saturn V launch was recorded as being 120 decibels – as loud as a rock concert, or a car horn at very close quarters. Compare that to the sound of a jet airliner taking off, which is between 120 and 160 decibels and considered dangerous to hearing if endured for longer than 30 seconds. Nasa's measurements at the time captured the launch noise at 204 decibels. A common myth at the time was that the soundwaves from the Saturn V's engines were so powerful that they melted concrete on the launch pad and set fire to grass a mile (1.6km) away (both were false). Even at such distances, the noise was incredible. When Apollo astronauts blasted off on their missions to the Moon, they did so with more than 3.2 miles (5.1km) separating them from the excited, onlooking crowds. But we will need to wait for the final noise measurements to be released before we will know for sure just how loud it really got. Dust and debris kicked up by the rocket also rained down on the town and the launchpad itself was destroyed by the force of the rocket.
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Residents in Port Isabel reported doors and windows shaking, and one gym owner claimed his window shattered during the launch, according to the New York Times. The FAA warned the engines may even be loud enough to damage to nearby buildings. People up to eight miles (13km) away, including those living in nearby Port Isabel, will hear the roar of the rocket at a level of 120dB, while those in eastern Brownsville around 15 miles (24km) away will experience noise levels of 111dB – around the same as being at a live rock concert. And might be one of the loudest too.Īnalysis conducted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before the launch estimated the Super Heavy rocket system would produce up to 150dB in the area just outside the Boca Chica Launch Facility in Texas. The 120m (393ft) tall rocket is designed to have almost double the thrust of any rocket in history. The Starship rocket, built by Elon Musk's SpaceX, became the largest and most powerful rocket system to ever take off when it launched on its brief maiden flight on 20 April 2023 moments before it underwent an "unscheduled disassembly" while in mid-air.
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