The Saturn-Shuttle was a preliminary concept of launching the Space Shuttle orbiter using the Saturn V rocket.A 1972 study for a low cost booster, one of them a Saturn V first stage modified to serve as a flyback booster.The S-IC stage would allow the booster to fly back to the Kennedy Space Center.
The Saturn-Shuttle concept also would have eliminated the Space shuttle solid rocket boosters.An interstage would be fitted on top of the S-IC stage to support the external tank in the space occupied by the S-II stage in the Saturn V. It was an alternative to the SRBs.
The addition of wings (and some form of landing gear) on the S-IC stage would allow the booster to fly back to the Kennedy Space Center, where technicians would then refurbish the booster (by replacing only the five F-1 engines and reusing the tanks and other hardware for later flights).
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The Shuttle would handle space station logistics, while the Saturn V would launch components.This would have allowed the International Space Station, using a Skylab or Mir configuration with both U.S. and Russian docking ports, to have been lifted with just a handful of launches.
