It will be rolled out to launch within two months to me president kennedys goal of landing on the moon in this decade. If apollo 11 goes as well as planned, they will take an extra couple of months to get a good reading on the rocks and so forth that are brought back. And then they will send apollo 12. We have an announcement coming up from Launch Control. This is apollo seven Launch Control. 16less than 60 minutes, minutes, planned liftoff of the vehicle. All going well at this time. The astronauts have had a chance to rest over the last few minutes. They havent been busy with procedures with the spacecraft. We have been performing final checks on the guidance system. Once we get down to the three minute 10 second mark, we will go on an automatic sequence. Aspects from there on down will be automatic, run by the ground master computer in the firing room. This will lead up to the 8. 9 minute mark in the countdown when the ignition sequence will begin in the five engines of the first stage. At the two second mark, we will get information and a signal that all engines are running. At the zero mark in the countdown, once we get the commence signal that says that the thrust is proper and acceptable, we will then get a commit and liftoff as the arms release the vehicle. We have 7. 6 Million Pounds of thrust pushing the vehicle upward, a vehicle that weighs close to 6. 5 Million Pounds. This is kennedy Launch Control. We will be hearing a great deal from jack king as the morning goes on. You have a good view from one of the 66 cameras around the launch site by which the National Space people in watch control monitor every one of the functions of the launch. Newsme here at our cbs space center at Merritt Island overlooking the launch site is one of the most distinguished of the Science Fiction writers, people who write who have predicted long before scientists were ready to put down the final plan just how we would go to the moon. Who is Arthur C Clarke includes 2001, the great movie which recently came out. I just read that they showed it with Great Success in moscow last night. Apparently got great applause there. You first road of going to the moon back in 1930s. At a time when nobody dreamed we would come the same. Did you . Arthur i didnt imagine it would be in my lifetime in those days. Walter how do you feel this morning . Arthur very excited and i have i came in feeling excited yet its familiar. Now im thinking about the next thing. Mars and beyond. Walter we havent gotten to the moon yet. Thats the nature of you sciencefiction writers, i suppose. Does this about match the way you thought we would do it . Arthur as far as the technical details, yes. This is precisely the way it was imagine. What we never imagined was the scale and the cost and complexity of the enterprise. Complex itze how would be, we wouldve been discouraged in the 30s. Walter you thought it would be a few Million Dollars . Theres been inflation since then. I think the figure they give now for just the launch alone is 69 million. Arthur all this money will come back many times over for generations to come. Its the best investment the United States have ever made. In another 20 years, people will be unable to imagine why we question this expenditure. The Space Industries of the next generation, it will move up to for the end of the century. There are many things on this earth we can only do with her airplanes and helicopters. They once seemed like there was a practical important. Walter will they find surprises out there . Arthur im sure they will. Nature is more complex and interesting that we can anticipate. They will find surprises on the moon. Not necessarily on the first flight. Im sure, eventually. I dont know if we will find a black monolith on the moon. Walter a reference to 2001. Tell me what thats all about. [laughter] theres a lot of mystery about that far out closing for the picture. We all liked it. We still argue in our family about what it means. Iybe before this is over, expect you to be sitting next to me many times over the next few days. Tell me the real secret of the monolith. Arthur ok. Walter i think ive got something. We will have many more talks about the moon, how we get there, in the future. Your ideas of how we will get be on the moon. Jacking in Launch Control now. We have now gone to automatic system with the emergency detection system. That system that would queue the astronauts if theres trouble down below. We are now coming up on the 10 minute mark. 10 minutes away from our planned liftoff. D10 minutes and counting. We are aiming for our planned liftoff at 32 minutes past the hour. This is kennedy Launch Control. Now someet us tell you of the things you will be seeing here. Theres no time in the excitement and reports of the launch itself. Indeed, it can scarcely be heard over the roar of the saturn five engine, the most powerful engine as far as we know that has ever been used to get man off of the surface or to move them anywhere on the surface of the earth. The russians are developing a rocket larger than this. We have no evidence that they have used it as yet. About 40 seconds before launch. The water dailies begins. You will see some evidence of it on your picture. 10 seconds before the actual liftoff, ignition takes place. Thats in those engines begin belching their thrust. There they are. A total of 7. 5 Million Pounds of thrust. There, gradeoads explosive potential but not as controlled through those nozzles. Nine seconds after the ignition begins, the arms fall back and the rocket with its full power is released to begin its slow climb up towards the skies. In just a couple just a cup of couple seconds later, it rolls little bit. Complete,ole program it is rolled over so its on is proper course. At one minute 21 seconds into the flight, you begin to see the contrails which indicate that it has reached the point in the sky with a maximum dynamic pressure of its launch and piercing of the atmosphere has come. Pounds onof 460,000 the skin of the spacecraft. Its one of the dangerous points of the launch. Its the maximum buffeting that the pilots get as they take off. The vehicle is eight miles high and three miles downrange. It is moving at 1800 Miles Per Hour. The inboard engines begin to cut off. Later, the outboard engines cut off. By that time, the vehicle is 41 miles high, running 6000 miles an hour. Then the first stage separates. The s2 second stage ignites. It completes its job and is jettisoned at three minutes and 11 seconds. The launch escape system jettisons go after that. The inboard engine cuts off and in the second stage. The inner stage was jettisoned earlier. Engines and separation of the second stage at nine minutes and 12 seconds. Then we get the third stated mission. At 11 minutes and 50 seconds, orbital insertion. The flight is on its way and has reached orbit, 150 miles high. Later, 1. 5 2. 5 hours revolutions, that the third stage fires up again to move from the 17,500 mile per hour escape velocity to go into a trans lunar trajectory. On the way to the moon at last. Cbs News Coverage of the launch day of apollo 11 will continue in a moment. Its just five minutes to the historic launch of the apollo 11. Its all going well. The astronauts are sitting there atop the great rocket in their command modules, getting ready for launch. Heres jack king at Launch Control. Jack the swing arms are now coming back. The astronauts will have a few more reports coming up in the countdown. The last Business Report will be from Neil Armstrong at the 45 second mark in the count. He will give the status on the final alignment of the stabilization and control system. We are now passing the four minute 32nd mark in the countdown. Still go at this time. Four minutes, 15 seconds. , you are gole test for lunch. From this time down, carson handles the countdown as the launch vehicle begins to build up. We are now hitting the fourminute mark. Four minutes and counting. We are go for apollo 11. We will go on an automatic sequence starting at three minutes and seven seconds. Engines that generate the thrust, combined horsepower. The launch vehicle weighs as much as the summary novelist. They burn 5 Million Pounds of fuel. 98 Railroad Tank Cars of it. The capacity of a small towns water tank. Decibels,reaches 120 compared to 8,000,005 planes at once. Thank you very much. We know it will be a good flight. Firing command coming in now. We are on the automatic sequence. We are approaching the three minute mark an account. T minus three minutes and counting. We are go with all elements of the mission at this time. We are on an automatic sequence as the master computer supervises hundreds of events occurring over these last two minutes. Dtwo minutes 45 seconds and counting. The members of the launch team in the control Center Monitoring a number of redline values. These are tolerances we dont want to go below in temperatures and pressures. They are standing by the colony deviations from our plans. Two minutes 30 seconds and counting. We are still go on apollo 11 at this time. The vehicle is starting to pressurize. All is still go. Two minutes, 10 seconds and counting. The target for the apollo 11 at a distancel be of 218,096 miles away. Just past the two minute mark in the countdown. T minus one minute 54 seconds and counting. Our status board indicates that the oxidizer tanks in the second and third stages have pressurized. We continue to build up pressure in all three stages at the last minute. Were preparing for liftoff. Done minute 35 seconds. The flight to land the first man on the moon. All indications are coming into the control center at this time and indicate we are go. Indicates it is completely pressurize. The 87 second mark his past. We are going full internal power at the 52nd mark in the countdown. Leading up to the ignition sequence at 8. 9 seconds. We are approaching the 62nd mark 62nd mark. D60. 55 seconds and counting. Neil armstrong just reported back, its been a small countdown. We passed the 50 second mark. Internal power with the launch vehicle at this time. 40 seconds away. Walter you can see the water dailies beginning now. 35 seconds and counting. We are still go with apollo 11. 30 seconds and counting. It feels good. T minus 20 seconds. 20 seconds and counting. D15 seconds. T15 seconds. 12, 11, 10, 9, ignition sequence start. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. All engines running. Liftoff, we have a liftoff. 32 minutes past the hour. Liftoff on apollo 11. Walter oh boy. It looks good. Getting that buffeting we have become used to. Man is on the way to the moon. Looks like a good trajectory so far. Very good. Beautiful. [inaudible] everything fell into place. [inaudible] walter you can see it beautifully on the screen here. We are through the region of maximum dynamic pressure now. Everything looks good here. Standby for mode one, charlie. Charles taking a staging status. Thats for dropping the first stage. Going through the second stage power. Inboard engines out. Walter you are hearing from the capsule communicator, Mission Control talking to the astronaut. 30 miles high. Standing by for the cut down. Walter this is jack riley reporting, the voice of missing control Mission Control. Ignition. Each of these events are very interesting. Thrusters go. All engines, you are looking for. Loud and you load clear, houston. 43 miles high. Per second. 350 feet we confirm. Should have the launch escape system jettison. Of the engine skirt separation and the launches gate launch escape our separation. Visual is go. Walter [laughter] roger that. [inaudible] the boost protective cover comes off. Altitude 62 miles. Velocity, 10,300 feet per second. Houston, you are go at four minutes. Walter the second stage of. Hese five thats an amazing camera. We can still see that spacecraft. At this point, its almost 93 miles high. 72 miles high. Velocity, 11,000 feet per second. Toter it has to get up 17,500 to go into earth orbit. Another four minutes before the booster says its looking good at five minutes. Houston, you are going five minutes. Walter the next critical moment will be when that second stage jettisons and we get that fourth stage ignition for the first time. It could be most significant to us. Cli continues the orbit insertion. [inaudible] everyone is reporting go in the control center. You are go in six minutes. That gate is jumping all around. [inaudible] walter what was jumping around . Gauges . Sequence that arranges the staging between the second stage and the third stage. A uncovers his tensors sensor starting that sequence. [inaudible] up or cut off at nine plus 11. Walter so good is this daily system. Deluge system. Its capable of keeping damage to a minimum on the pad. They can turn around and use those service stance almost instantly. [inaudible] still go at seven minutes, 41 seconds. We confirm. Inboard engines are on the second stage as planned. Walter looks like another perfect launch. What a feat theyve come to with these saturns after the early days of mercury and even gemini. , i wish ontime launch we could get american railroads to run on the kind of schedule that they have these apollos launched on. We finally have [inaudible] [inaudible] you are a go for staging. This should be the firing of the as 14. Could get into orbit using the service projection system. Altitude is 1000 miles. Ignition. Walter ignition, right on time. Thrusters go, 11. Standby for psi. 697. Walter we have a good third stage now. This burn lasts two minutes and 25 seconds, that brings the vehicle to its orbital speed of 17,500 Miles Per Hour, up 1000 miles from where it was before. Downrange, 1000 miles. Altitude, 101 miles. [inaudible] walter the third stage is aj to engine. J2 engine. I think i misidentified the communicator minute ago. The man who is communicating with the astronauts from Mission Control [inaudible] off at 11 plust 42, over. Downrange, 1175 miles. Last of the heres former president johnson. [inaudible] hes the official representative of president nixon. President agnew is here. We should get confirmation of orbital insertion and about 15 seconds now. Altitude, one of 2. 8 nautical miles. Set down right on time. We copy. That would be a nautical mile of the orbit for the spacecraft has been confirmed. It made the first big jump on their trip to land on the moon. Vice president agnew is on your screen. The booster is safe. Roger. Thats another good sign. The booster is safe. The destruct system has been shut off by a can command on the ground. They cannot destroy the spacecraft. Way. Designed if we abort a pod, ofan escape course. Its nice to know its shut off. Walter at this point, now that they are in earth orbit, their return could be a normal return to a selected landing spot by andisoning the third stage going on their services dimension. Just as we were in the earth orbital flights. Walter this first, always dramatic and, obviously with explosive potential with all of that fuel. The dangerous launch phase has passed. Apollo 11 is on the way. Looking good, over. Yes it is. Tom was a pilot on apollo 10. A paved the way for this flight. Vice president agnew and his party. Tom has been the chief briefing officer for the vp, the vips the last couple of days. You see him coming in and out of the hotel there. The help. Hilton. Hes constantly running off to make more notes to brief another important visitor. Tom would say the queue v q. Walter we remarked earlier about all the foreign dignitaries, the congressman, the senators, governors, mayors, theyre here. 1535. Ios canaria 1630. Walter that report is on the l os. Loss of signal of the vanguard. Thats one of the tracking ships in the atlantic to the acquisition signal on mary island. Here on the ground, we are showing in orbit at 102. 5 by 99. 7 nautical miles. Officerht dynamics wants to get some radar tracking to refine this orbit. He will report a refined orbit after more radar tracking. Almost 116 miles. You will note the biggest difference, the radar data hasnt been smooth get. He onboard data it really doesnt, its not critical at this point. The difference in those one or two miles in earth orbit, as long as they are in the right position over the pacific on the second orbit to fire off the third stage and boost their speed from 17 mile 70,500 miles to 25,000 Miles Per Hour which will put them on the way to the moon. Ist moon trajectory speed just enough to escape enough of the earths gravity to be captured by the moons gravity, to be brought around the far side of the moon. With enough inertial speed to come back to earth but not go into moon orbit. Nor be sewing go fast that you bypass the moon and are not captured by its gravity and go into the sun. Those figures translate to 118 by 120 statute miles. A little bit higher than they calculated, i think. Less than a couple of miles and well within range. Weve seen another beautiful saturn launch. This one will never be known in history as just another saturn five launch. Not if all goes well. This is the flight from which man will first set foot on the moon. We almost tossed that line away. Man on the moon. By golly. Colored coverage of the launch day of apollo 11 will continue in a moment area moment. Apollo 11 is on the way. Spouting that pillar of flame from the saturn five into the skies come out there 250,000 miles away where the moon is waiting for mans first rival. Flight to take three days. Will reach there on saturday. The landing will take place on sunday. Neil armstrong will set foot on the moon at 2 21 a. M. On monday morning. The first critical phase of this flight is over, the launch. They are now winners orbit. They are now over the atlantic, approaching the coast of africa. They will touch shortly with the canary tracking station where we may hear more from them. And then out over africa, the indian ocean, past australia, back around for the first trip across the United States. On the second trip around, they will launch themselves out towards the moon itself. On the first pass around, on the completion of first orbit, when their overhead here for the first time, we can expect a transmission from their color onboard television came