You've never seen a launch like this #shorts #history #space

The Vintage Space
76 followers
2 Video Views·Jun 7, 2025
The full video is 8 minutes long there was no way to get it all into a short -- I did my best! It's an amazing shot.
This might legitimately be one of the most incredible launch shots I have ever seen.
This is Apollo 11's launch seen from camera E8 which is on the launch pad. It is a 16 millimeter
camera capturing at 500 frames per second so we get to see detail like you've never seen before.
This camera turned on five seconds before liftoff and what we're looking at is the F1
engines the business end of the Saturn V. They started firing thanks to a bursting hypergolic
cartridge that started the flow of propellant the kerosene and the liquid oxygen mixing and
igniting. As we're seeing that flame come out it starts to engulf over the launch pad but at full
thrust this rocket generated 7.5 million pounds of thrust. All that material now is getting sucked
back under the rocket and being pushed down into the hole and out of the flame trenches. You can
also see the hold down arms they're holding the rocket in place but at t minus zero they release
and the arm actually goes under a flame hood that protects it so that the hood bears the brunt of
all of that fire coming out of the rocket. You can also see as the rocket starts taking off
hunks of ice. This is condensation from the liquid oxygen tank it wasn't insulated it didn't need to
be because there was nothing really dangerous for those chunks of ice to hit. As the rocket's
leaving you can see those hold down arms are now actually on fire that's because the white paint is
actually an ablative material. It was designed to burn away to protect the actual mechanism so that
it could be painted and refurbished and used for the next launch. And we're also now seeing the
water deluge system. The water is coming in at a rate of 15,000 gallons per minute all designed to
help cool and calm down the chaos on the launch pad. By the end of this video the rocket is long
gone it has cleared the tower but there is still so much going on on the launch pad. There are a
million videos of Apollo 11's launch and I'm sure you've seen some before but this one I think is such a truly unique view.
