Hell, I Was THERE!
Well, three miles across the Indian River from Launch Complex 39A, anyway.
I was seven years old.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=5722827024646179220&hl=en&fs=true
The launch of a Saturn V rocket is the single most awe-inspiring thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve seen twelve of them – Apollo 6 through the launch of Skylab (Apollo 7, testing only the newly redesigned Apollo capsule and Command Module in Earth orbit used the smaller Saturn IB). I’ve never seen a shuttle launch in person, and it looks as if that program will end before I get a chance to.
But forty years ago, I witnessed the pinnacle of human achievement. We went to another world.