Launch Of Apollo 11 In Real Time (July 16, 1969) 

Sending a 30-story building into space with nothing but magnetic tape, slide rules, cigarettes, and skinny ties is incredible by itself. But then navigating a quarter of a million miles of empty space in a tin can with only the aid of a few celestial observations and a 16-bit guidance computer to land on the moon is some serious piloting.

I lived in Cocoa Beach at the time of the Apollo Program. My Dad worked at the Space Center at Cape Canaveral. I watched this launch from the beach. When these Saturn V rockets would launch all the windows in our house would rattle and sound like they were going to fall out of the window frame. Great memories growing up in Cocoa Beach during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Sky Lab programs.

The fact that you are holding something with more technology than that entire spaceship had is the more incredible thing

As a 7 year old at the time, this still ranks as one of the most amazing times of my life! Thanks very much.

Really brings light to how incredible the scope, and scale of mission control was. I knew it was massive, but this footage brings a new perspective to that I had not seen. Such as the scene panning through all the printers for telemetry with guys in IBM jackets.

This is absolutely FANTASTIC Fran. Thank you so much for the great idea and all of the time you must have devoted to put this together..

As a teenage boy in Australia, I remember watching the moon landing on B&W TV, via satellite, at school. It was the most amazing thing that I ever saw. I will never forget what happened on that day. The school principle said that we could go home. It was obviously important to him. Most of us stayed at school (a miracle) so that we could see it happen on the TV in the library. I will never forget that day.

1969 = Moon, 2023 = just Orbit

@20:07 If you look at the photos of the control room you will see many consoles that have 2 technicians one siting behind each other. I was told a long time ago that those operators were so crucial that they had back up technicians siting right behind them in case the primary tech had a heart attack or something, They were there to yank the guy away and take over his job.

I watched every Apollo launch live when I was a kid. It's astonishing to think they accomplished all that with less computing power (on the rocket and in mission control combined) than I have in my pocket right now.

My dad worked for Grumman (the company that built the lunar module). I stood on the seawall on the Indian river by JCPenney’s in Titusville Florida on US one and watched this 🚀 in real time as a 15 year old. I also stood in that launch control room in the VAB the time my dad brought me to the Cape with him. It’s hard to imagine anything more exciting then this launch up to that point in my life. Thanks so much for posting Fran.👍🏻👋🏻🙏🏻

Those of us fortunate to have witnessed this event as it happened will always have a sense of awe and pride in this astounding achievement. Imagine the individuals in Mission Control who were part of this and those who are still with us can always say, "Yeah, I was there; I was part of it." Sends chills up my spine. And it never gets old.

Masterful editing of an incredible historical event in history. Thank you for all the hard work Fran.

Thank you! For those of you who naysayers, we were all well aware of the artist representations of various phases of the mission. There was a lot about the Apollo missions that we could only hear back in the day, the representations allowed people to picture in their minds what they hadn't ever seen. Cudos to everyone who pulled off these missions and thank you to everyone keeping these memories alive. These missions were an inspiration to generations across the world.

I was 8 years old when I watched this live. It still brings tears to my eyes now I am 61.

Thanks for publishing this. Struggling to imagine how anyone could doubt that this ever happened. No actors, no CGI, just real people who invested blood, sweat & tears into this project.

The greatest endeavour man has ever set out on. I never tire of watching these Saturn V rockets.

Thanks for posting this, Fran. 🙂 Great work, and I know this was a LOT of work for you.

I cannot imagine how much work went into making this. Many kudos to you Fran! And many thanks!

The bravery of the astronauts, the engineering brains (before the computer age as we know it) and the achievement of these guys is off the scale.

Seeing this just now did my heart good. Thanks Fran! Kudos on your editing, telecine and audio mixing. The footage of KSFC and the details of the consoles was amazing (nixie tubes). The trucking shot of the rows and rows of consoles was astonishing. I never knew just how big the Kennedy control room was! Just great...

This is a wonderful document, Fran! You continue to make great contributions to the world. My most sincere thanks to you.

Wow Fran... Just wow. This is incredible work you've put together, thank you for sharing, it was excellent to watch!

Great video - I still remember and loved our "Mercury, Gemini and Apollo years", what a great time to be an American. Speaking as a retired mechanical engineer, I still regard our walking on the moon as the greatest moment in technology. It's hard to believe that our phones have more computing power than all of the computers on the rocket and NASA and yet we still did it. What a great step it was!!!!

Amazing edited film of one of our planet's greatest achievements! Thank you for your time and effort in making this experience!

Just awesome! Love to hear all the coms as they calmly run the script and work the errors. Took a lot of nerve to just keep rolling and go for launch. They relied on a lot of cameras to confirm everything "looked OK". Fantastic work Fran!

Dear Fran, Thank you so much for this compilation, back in the day I was unable to watch the event as I was tramping around the boonies in South Vietnam. On the day that Neil walked on the moon I was in An Hoa with my Vietnamese scout, we were waling byt the Staff NCO quarters where there was a small black and whit TV and on the screen was footage of Neil jumping down and saying his little speech, the full moon was overhead and I pointed at the TV and then at the Moon and said, in Vietnamese, "Right now there are to Big Noses on the moon". and he looked at me and said "Bull shit". Which lead to a long discussion in Vietnamese, anyway he went into town and the next day he apologized because he'd heard it on the Vietnamese news.

That was very cool! All that behind- the- scenes audio. I've always loved hearing that uninterrupted. Everyone was glued to the TV. It was an incredible 3 days.

This is amazing, Fran. Thanks. I just saw my Dad sitting next to Warner Von Braun. I was only 5 years old and watched the launch from his office. Thanks for the great memory.

Finally, we see and hear what was happening at the start of human beings greatest achievement of the twentieth century. No music , narration , or useless journalism in this documentary , it can be witnessed ourselves. The communication , coordination and purpose of the people involved in the first lunar landing is important to acknowledge.Thank you for presenting this in such a way that all will understand the complexity of that endeavor.

Almost a half million engineers, technicians, and craftsmen made this happen. The USA at it's best! As an engineer, I have a deep appreciation for this accomplishment. The whole world stopped when Armstrong stepped on the moon! It has all gone to $hit since then...

Thank you for sharing. I have vivid memories of this famous day in our history. I was an Air Force medic stationed at Stewart AFB in Newburgh, N..Y. watching this on the TV in the day room in my barracks in July 1969.

_I won't lie, seeing Saturn 5 pushing through the the sound barrier like it's nothing is a truly epic sight_

My god that's awesome!! I'm old enough to remember that day but I've never experienced it like this. Thanks Fran!!

Fran, thank you for your content! Born in ‘84, this brings back so many memories. I didn’t understand the depth of what was happening but I appreciate it now.

Great video. First time I’ve heard a recording of multiple ground loops for Apollo 11. Thanks so much!

When one thinks of how complex this machine is, and how reliable it was required to be. I hope we don’t lose our impetus to continue exploring and engineering.

Excellent Fran. I can't get enough of this having lived through the 60s space missions. Although some great things are happening today, it is unparalleled with what they had to do back then. So many technologies that had to be pushed to their limits by so many companies to achieve what could have easily dismissed as impossible.

Saw the launch from the Atlantic Ocean aboard the U.S.S. Ault. An moment in History that will always be and I was there !

Love this Fran! Some of this was sourced for the Apollo 11 movie a few years ago but there is so much more here that they left out. Stuff that doesn't make good cinema but is really interesting for space nerds!

This is spectacular! Thank you for your time and hard work in assembling this. Watching this, I felt like a 9 year old kid again, my heart pounding, my eyes like silver dollars, and my jaw hanging and oblivious to everything around me. I remember this, like the old saying, "just like it was yesterday". Thank you for allowing me to experience this again. Just wonderful!

This is some incredible editing, wonderful experience to watch

Really, really nice job Fran. I thoroughly enjoy this. Well done.

Watched this as it happened with my mom. Thank you for your time and effort in putting this together. Lost mom to cancer in 71, remember her being more excited than us kids.

Guidance is internal.. All these after 1969 & I still get goose bumps watching the mighty Saturn V take off.Truly magnificent!!

We went to the moon. That is so amazingly cool.

Love that you edited together so many channels of information and video. Thank you!

Amazing job, thanks for editing all this stuff together

What brilliant work, Fran! How did I miss this last week? Fantastic.

Yeah, Fran, thank you. Have never seen all this footage before. This happened 8 years before I even existed. Appreciate all the effort to put this together

This is such a historic gem of a video. Thank you so much for the upload.

Wow Fran, thank you so much for this, it was incredible.

Fran, you've made a significant contribution to the history of the Apollo program! I've watched hundreds of launch videos, but nothing compares to the scope and accuracy of what you've done here. In addition, this is the only launch video I know of that integrates the activities and coordination of the LCC and the MCC during launch preparation. (At first I thought some of the video was from other launches, but then I started to notice some of the controller's lips sync up with the audio, and realized my mistake.) Bravo Fran! Thank you for your Herculean effort to pull this together! This is one for the books.

Without billions of transistors

Fran as a lifetime technician and engineer I love your channel!

Frantastic video! It was great to watch, thank you for this amazing job!

Fantastic, did not disappoint! And for the even fuller experience I watched side by side with LunarModule5's version. Nice to see all the different footage.

Thanks Fran! I remember watching the TV when this originally aired. I was about 5 years old. My super nerd elder brother dragged the whole family down to his Lab/She'd to watch history being made.

This is awesome, Fran. Fun to be 'there' during the launch and hearing all that goes on.

A masterpiece. Thank you for the hard work Fran! What an emotion. Imagining all the things they had to think about to launch this rocket and to make the mission successful makes me believe in Humanbeings. Let's not waste all they have done and make our planet better now! People have the power.

Brilliant! Thanks for your efforts Fran,It is amazing to think that all of those personel at workstations would be replaced nowadays with 3 or 4 with laptops!

Excellent video Fran I remember Dad getting us up at about 3 am to watch moon landing live , I was 9 (10 in couple of weeks) . Amazing achievement for mankind , if we could only get over our differences and channel it into technology rather than wars imagine what we could do

Fantastic video, thanks for all the effort you put into it!

I was 4-years-old at the time, so my recollection of Apollo 11 was pretty much limited to being dragged out of bed to watch the moon landing. I feel privileged that I did see it live and there can’t be that many people younger than me who remember watching it. By the time of the next few launches I was old enough to really get into it and get wrapped up in the excitement. Indeed, here in England, Kelloggs cornflakes would include Apollo stickers and they were seriously tradable in our street among the kids. My early school years were at a time before calculators, and we learned to use slide-rules before calculators became affordable, and having done so, it really gives you an understanding of how complex and ambitious the Apollo program was. The period was an interesting time to grow up and provided endless opportunities for our teachers to engage us in theoretical mathematics (calculating escape velocities etc). What I find fascinating now is just how small the SpaceX control room is, compared to Apollo.

WOW. Amazing! This is a great add-on to the 50th Anniversary Apollo 11 documentary film with the amazing new high quality high resolution 70MM images...!! Thank you so much!

Awesome never seen before . I was 11 when 11 blasted off, Great memories of little boy dreams. Thanks Fran

Great job putting that all together, Fran! Thanks for sharing -- brings back memories!

Thank you for this! I've seen countless doccumentaries, all editing out the "boring" parts. I'm loving it though!!

This took place on my 7th birthday. Even though I am 60 now, I still am happy about it. Great document Fran.

Love watching that beast fly. I wish that I'd have been able to see one fly in person. And that zoom at 35:20, seeing the pressure cones as it continued to accelerate? Amazing.

Fantastic pull together Fran. Thank you

Yes, it is rocket science. It’s engineers having fun doing what they do best. Apollo was colossal. Still is.

So cool! I watched it live, I was 8 at the time. Thank you for posting this!

Thank you Fran!!! I was 21 yrs old and listened to the launch on radio from South Africa. I was with 2 friends of similar age. I recorded it on casette tape. It was all so exciting!!!

Franlab - outstanding professional work, very informative and a true-to-life experience. Way to go!

I can't wait for the SLS launch. Thanks for the time and effort spent bringing us this footage.

I am privileged enough to have been able to watch all of the early Mercury and Apollo missions which were televised. My parents were big fans and we also visited Cape Kennedy in the late sixties or early Seventies. I visited there with my dad in the early Nineties as well. This was a different time back in the early years of NASA.

I was born about 2 months later. I'm hoping to get to see the next moon landing.

Wow, never gets old. Thanks Fran!

Stunning footage of an incredible achievement.

I was 3 years old. Watching this launch on the old 19" black and white TV is one of my earliest memories. Everyone was so excited. Even now as an old man I sit on the edge of my seat, holding my breath with the awe of a child, every time I see the old footage.

I remember this day very well. Me and my dad paused doing chores and listened to his truck radio. My dad being a veteran was very interested. I was 11yrs old,my dad 55.

Was 13 in 69....we'd always watch every launch. We were so proud of our scientists, engineers and pilots. Such a nobel endeavor.

Thank you very much for such an excellent job editing this historical video. I was celebrating my third birthday that day, and don’t remember the launch, but still have vivid memories of me watching on TV the first steps on the moon.

I loved this whole thing! Especially enjoyed the Com check with Buzz's wife Joan at their home on the squawk box.

Absolutely bloody brilliant - thank you!

Thank you Fran. I was 5 yrs old when they launched. I remember this was very exciting.

Thank you, it's been a pleasure to watch this again.

Superb work, Fran. Perhaps the best "you are there" video of the launch ever made. To this day, as I watch, all I can think of is, "How the hell did they make that thing work?" More so, even, because we've learned so much about what was really going on.

Thanks for your amazing work Fran!

Breathtaking footage, much of which I've never seen- love all that pre-launch stuff! Thanks!

My gosh, thank you! I was three years old when this happened. Watching this 53 years later made me realize I do have some memories of this. I recall watching on my parents black and white TV in Australia . Today I think this is a reminder of when America really was great.

The shots of rows of people at desks and the constant chatter compared to 2022 launches of a dozen or so people shows just how much automation has taken place in the intervening years. Brilliant footage. Love it!

I watched it.

Great collection of, film and audio! Including the animation. Thanks for this in depth video of that launch. I was 14 and remember the landing on the moon very well.

Never ever gets old... always delivers... powerful stuff.

Nothing short of superb. I must say I have tried doing something similar... and analogic sources can be really tough to synchronize. Adjusting multiple reel-to-reel audio tracks often amounts to hours of frustration. Again: Superb Work!

34:41 All the vintage machines are amazing !

I was 8 years old and watched this at a friends house because we didnt have a colour TV - thank you for sharing Fran

Wow!!! This is great! Thank you Fran!