"Tranquility Base here. The 'Haystack' has landed."
Not quite as evocative as the actual words, but the early NASA internal planning name for the 'Eagle' was indeed 'Haystack'. The Command Module, named 'Columbia' was referred to as 'Snowcone'. Good move to choose better names before announcing the mission to the world.
Yes, we now know it happened, and it was of course totally successful.
But forty years later I find the lift-off as exciting, moving and, yes, tense as the child of six years old did.
What about you?
No one knew for sure that all would go well - but they believed that it would. I think that belief counted for a lot, and still does.
This slow motion coverage of the lift off, featuring the various pad systems as they automatically disconnect from the Saturn V just as it starts to move, is really fascinating.
Stay with it and towards the end of the film there are a great few seconds of the Saturn V stack disappearing into the blue sky...en route to the Moon...at last!
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