179 a
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

Wide-angle view of the liftoff of the first Saturn V rocket at Cape Kennedy

Apollo 4, November 9, 1967, 000:00:02 GET

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA caption and “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso

179 b
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

The first saturn V rocket lifting off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

Apollo 4, November 9, 1967, 000:00:02 GET

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso (NASA KSC)
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

179 b
Chaikin, Space, pp. 76-77.

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Lot Essay

179 a
On the morning of Nov. 9, 1967, the ambitious effort to develop the Saturn V rocket was achieved. At 7:00 a.m. EST, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center experienced the roar of a rocket from Launch Complex 39 for the first time.
“‘Go, baby, go,’ Wernher von Braun, the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket, was heard to shout” (Poole, p. 85).

After the successful liftoff, Kennedy Space Center’s director, Kurt Debus, spoke of that achievement.
“After long years of preparing, designing, building and constructing a new type facility, it was put to the test for the first time and it was done extremely well,” he said. The Saturn V’s third stage, or S-IVB, and Apollo Command/ Service Module were placed into a nearly circular 115-mile orbit, as would be the case on lunar missions. After two orbits, the S-IVB’s first re-ignition put the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit with a high point of 11,200 miles (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/apollo-4-was-first-ever-launch-from-nasas-kennedy-space-center).

179 b
Apollo 4 was the first of the “big shots,” the test launch of the colossal three-stage Saturn V rocket that would take men to the Moon. The rocket’s power of 7.5 million pounds of thrust reached the Launch Control Center (LCC), Press Site and spectators, all three miles away, shocking even veteran launch viewers and creating one of the loudest-ever human made sounds.

“At liftoff, the vibration from the Saturn V showered us with dust and debris from the ceiling of the Launch Control Center which was brand new at the time,” expressed NASA’s Public Information chief, Jack King, who served as countdown commentator (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/apollo-4-was-first-ever-launch-from-nasas-kennedy-space-center).