I was living in Atlanta in the summer of 1969. Drove down to Cape Canaveral with two high school buddies, my parents let us borrow the big Ford station wagon.
We got there about 3 am, we were on a back road and the shoulders were packed! We went ahead and parked and we were 13 miles away. That was the closest we could get.
Even at 3am nobody was sleeping, it was a giant road side Moon Launch Party. Everybody was talking and friendly.
NASA pr was top notch, they had that big rocket all lit up with giant spot lights. Even at that distance it was a sight to see! If you held your hand out at arm's length it was about 4 inches high but it looked beautiful, all painted a gleaming white.
About 9am they lit it up. It was a fantastic fireball! Even from that far away it was astonishing! On thing that was surprising, there was no sound. I figured we were too far away to hear it.
I didn't have a stop watch but about 30 seconds later, the sound hit. It was overwhelming. The loudest sound I ever have heard. And it did make the ground shake.
Good God what a spectacle. Made me so proud to be an American.
The conspiracy nuts say we never went to the moon. Well I don't know about that, but, By God we launched on that summer day in 1969.
This is the only launch I ever have seen.
And, on tv today the guy said that Apollo 11 was 5 times more powerful than the SpaceX rocket today.
