[1] It was a potential alternative to the Nova rocket, should NASA have chosen a direct ascent method of lunar exploration for the Apollo program.

NASA announced on September 7, 1961, that the government-owned Michoud Ordnance Plant near New Orleans, Louisiana, would be the site for fabrication and assembly of the Saturn first stages as well as larger vehicles in the Saturn program.

This decision ended consideration of a Nova-class launch vehicle for direct ascent to the Moon or as heavy-lift derivatives for Earth orbit rendezvous.

Ultimately, the lunar orbit rendezvous ("LOR") concept approved in 1962 rendered the C-8 obsolete, and the smaller Saturn C-5 was developed instead under the designation "Saturn V", as the LOR spacecraft was within its payload capacity.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.