Hot on the heels of two previous posts on launching the space shuttle, as well as Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s first orbit around there earth, spacecraftfilms.com now gives us this ultra slow motion view of Apollo 11 lifting off the launchpad on its Saturn V rocket. An incredible amount of power – just watch the ablative paint layers burn completely off of all the launch pad structures, under the intense heat of 5 rocket engines.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

This clip is raw from Camera E-8 on the launch umbilical tower/mobile launch program of Apollo 11, July 16, 1969. This is an HD transfer from the 16mm original. Even more excellent footage is available on our DVDs at our website at spacecraftfilms.com

The camera is running at 500 fps, making the total clip of over 8 minutes represent just 30 seconds of actual time. Narration is provided by Mark Gray (me), Executive Producer for Spacecraft Films.