Figure 1With the beginning of the nation's "Saturn" space program and its huge-sized family of space vehicles, water transportation became the only feasible means of transferring large stages between geographically separated areas. The development within the last four years of a Saturn marine transportation system, including the transportation of test fuels, has paralleled the development of the Saturn space vehicles. Although the cargoes were of unprecedented dimensions, existing marine transport equipment and concepts were successfully employed and modified into an extensive transportation network. Research and development are under way for the transport and water recovery of even larger Saturn space vehicles. Many of these vehicles will be so immense that marine design as represented by the present state of the art will not suffice. Only by imaginative use of its full potential will naval architecture meet the demands of the coming space age.