VIDEO: Apollo 11 Lifted Off For Moon 45 Years Ago Today

By  //  July 16, 2014

MISSION TO LAND FIRST MEN ON THE MOON

ABOVE VIDEO: On July 16, 1969, America sent the first humans to the moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins were aboard the mission named Apollo 11. The launch vehicle they rode, the Saturn 5 rocket, is still the most powerful machine ever built. It generated almost 8 million pounds of thrust and even after 45 years, it is the only vehicle that has carried men beyond earth’s gravity. Watch it now, as you would have seen it on July 16, 1969, at 9:26 AM EDT. T-minus 00:5:59 and counting.

John Kennedy
John Kennedy

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

– President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961

APOLLLO-11-580

ABOVE IMAGE: On July 16, 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched from Kennedy Space Center for a groundbreaking mission that would fulfill the President’s wishes: Apollo 11.

Forty-five years ago today, their Saturn V rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 39A at 9:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time with hundreds of thousands of spectators watching.

After making one and a half orbits around the Earth, the Apollo 11 crew would head for the Moon and eventually land there four days later with the famous words, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”

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