Launch of Apollo 4 (NBC Audio)

Video from the channel lunarmodule5 about Apollo 4, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:52. Language: English. Video type: Launch.

Audio of NBC's coverage of the Apollo 4 launch on November 9, 1967, the first flight of the Saturn V. The network edited it over launch footage, partly taken from other missions. Frank McGee hosts the broadcast with reports from Jack King at launch control. Roy Neal reviews the delays: the second stage arrived five months late and required 4,000 X-rays, and the spacecraft was modified after the fire that killed three astronauts in January. In addition, the final countdown test, planned for 3 days, took 16 and ended on October 13.

The spacecraft's pyrotechnic circuits are armed while about 450 technicians follow the count. At T-50 s the vehicle switches to internal power, and the ignition sequence starts at 8.9 s before zero. The rocket lifts off at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time. The first stage's inner engines shut down around 2 min 18 s and the outer ones at 2 min 34 s, and the second stage then ignites.

At 64 miles away and about 10,000 feet per second, the interstage ring and the escape tower separate, and controllers report that all parameters are correct. Splashdown was planned in the Pacific about 8 h 41 min after liftoff.