SpaceX operates this actual historic pad 39A now and are setting it up to do the 1st orbital test pretty soon now of Starship, which is a bit bigger than Saturn V. They do acknowledge all the time the giant shoulders of NASA they stand on too which is nice to see
Thanks for sharing! My 90 year old dad was one of the crane operators who worked on the VAB. He even worked on the shuttle runway. We took it for granted growing up in the shadow of NASA.
Marion Power Shovel, (from my home town of Marion, OH) Won the $15millon contract to design and built the 2 crawlers in the mid 60s. Marvelous pieces of engineering that serves NASA well even today. Was neat to see them being constructed! Thanks Fran!
Utterly delightful. I got to visit the complex in the late-90s. Even though it was a canned tour I was still excited. They wouldn't let us out at the photog site because it was raining. Not enough to bother me but them's the breaks. Anyone notice the distorted crowd noise at 6:12 sounds like the saucer noise from The Invaders? Or is just me? Johnson sounded oddly overwhelmed-- can you imagine what Kennedy would have said.
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I got to tour the KSC in '76 for the bicentennial, total awesomeness, but this is really interesting seeing it being built 12 years before that. In '76, the American flag painted on the VAB was the largest in the world.
These videos are awesome. Keep them coming. Nix the naysayers. These are bits of history and need to be preserved and shared. I lived in Florida in the early 90's and had the opportunity to see a few shuttle launches from the Kennedy Space Center. The whole complex is impressive beyond basic comprehension. To see clouds forming in the assembly building was incredible. If you ever make it down to Cape Canaveral, check it out.
Thanks so much Fran for getting this out, growing up 40 miles from PAD 39A, this is close to my heart, when I was 16 I went on the tour and was able to get within 100 yards of the pad, maybe even closer.... it was right before Apollo 11........we even went into the VAB.....that place is HUGE..... best regrards from Orlando, Paul
The current Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron at McChord AFB in Washington was chartered in 1973, between NASA's last Moon mission (Apollo 17) and the first Skylab mission. The McChord CAP Squadron's original charter number of "46039" (today known as "PCR-WA-039") was specifically requested as an allusion to Launch Complex 39. Today, Civil Air Patrol cadets continue being 'launched' forward into adulthood from McChord's 'Launchpad 39'. I'll be sure to show this awesome film to the cadets!
Fantastic! (Frantastic too!). Thank you for posting this video. So amazing at that time, to be reaching that far with so many unknowns. I am always fascinated by the industry of such projects-this is a real treat!
Interesting the launch animation in 1964 was fairly close (as far as I could tell) to the real thing years later. I got to see the last Saturn V launch (Skylab) at the Cape; I still have vivid memories of the incredible noise and pressure, even where we were located at the VIP viewing stands. I think I still have some 35mm slides of it somewhere in the house.
Can you imagine the electrical job of the control center back in 1963? Would have loved to have seen it go in...but I wasn't even born yet. I was born at the end of May so as a Gemini I feel a bit more affinity to Project Gemini :)
This is amazing. Back in the 1990's I worked at Owen Steel in Columbia, SC, and in their downtown offices before they relocated they had pictures up inside the office of several of the launch pads that they had help fabricate steel for. A reminder that a project of this scale (the moon landing) involved people all over the country, some doing really advanced scientific activities, but many many others doing very mundane things like driving bulldozers, and cutting steel with band saws.
growing up at lancaster i found myself at KSC in 84 as a fleet electronic tech Shuttle Systems, the first yr was hands off wile obtaining security clearances and training classes while on the MLP mobile launcher. i had the pleasure of riding on the zero level to the pad many times.we were shifting gears at that time transitioning from SHUTTLE R&D into production. Also we were to validate vandenberg afb ground systems ..i could write a book..~~
My great uncle worked in Huntsville at IBM back in the 60s throughout the 90s. Specifically, he worked at Redstone Arsenal. He's probably one of, if not THE most interesting person I know. Heck of a human being and still super smart. He's getting up there in age, though. 😔 Pretty sure he's in his 80s by now.
If you look at the very first part of the video you can see the Blacktop surface they where planing to use, on top of the crawler road. After running the crawler the first time it destroyed the cover surface, after that happened it was decided that the top surface would only be gravel. My father drove us out to the cape on the Saturday after the test to see the destroyed road. Good thing they had only covered the fist few hundred feet to do the test!
Great film. It must have been so cool to be there when it was built; and to work there during the mid / late sixties!!! Would love to see footage of the control room circuitry installation.
You left those last few seconds of no longer public domain music in there on purpose. I wonder if Elon has seen this. I wonder how he feels when he sees this.
"Thunderbirds", indeed! Imagine being the jerk who parks one of the Mobile Servicing Structures in the Mobile Servicing Structure Parking Area in such a way that the parked Mobile Servicing Structure takes up two spaces. Mobile Servicing Structure.
No doubt that America is the greatest country in the world........unfortunately now a-days we have people running the country that are destroying it...so sad 😞
6:40 sounds like LBJ says "America will be the home of the free & the land of the brave" of course Sept 15th 1964 was less than a year after JFK was shot so we'll cut him some slack on the mixup..
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Spent many years at the VAB, O&C, and HQ buildings during the shuttle era. This was a treat, Fran.
Like SpaceX today, but x100! The scale of the effort is breathtaking.
SpaceX operates this actual historic pad 39A now and are setting it up to do the 1st orbital test pretty soon now of Starship, which is a bit bigger than Saturn V. They do acknowledge all the time the giant shoulders of NASA they stand on too which is nice to see
Thanks for sharing! My 90 year old dad was one of the crane operators who worked on the VAB. He even worked on the shuttle runway. We took it for granted growing up in the shadow of NASA.
Marion Power Shovel, (from my home town of Marion, OH) Won the $15millon contract to design and built the 2 crawlers in the mid 60s. Marvelous pieces of engineering that serves NASA well even today. Was neat to see them being constructed! Thanks Fran!
Utterly delightful. I got to visit the complex in the late-90s. Even though it was a canned tour I was still excited. They wouldn't let us out at the photog site because it was raining. Not enough to bother me but them's the breaks.
Anyone notice the distorted crowd noise at 6:12 sounds like the saucer noise from The Invaders? Or is just me?
Johnson sounded oddly overwhelmed-- can you imagine what Kennedy would have said.
I was inside the Vehicle Assembly Building in the mid '70s while in high school. The place is big enough to have its own weather inside...
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I got to tour the KSC in '76 for the bicentennial, total awesomeness, but this is really interesting seeing it being built 12 years before that. In '76, the American flag painted on the VAB was the largest in the world.
These videos are awesome. Keep them coming. Nix the naysayers. These are bits of history and need to be preserved and shared.
I lived in Florida in the early 90's and had the opportunity to see a few shuttle launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
The whole complex is impressive beyond basic comprehension. To see clouds forming in the assembly building was incredible.
If you ever make it down to Cape Canaveral, check it out.
Thanks so much Fran for getting this out, growing up 40 miles from PAD 39A,
this is close to my heart, when I was 16 I went on the tour and was able to get within 100 yards of the pad, maybe even closer....
it was right before Apollo 11........we even went into the VAB.....that place is HUGE.....
best regrards from Orlando, Paul
The current Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron at McChord AFB in Washington was chartered in 1973, between NASA's last Moon mission (Apollo 17) and the first Skylab mission. The McChord CAP Squadron's original charter number of "46039" (today known as "PCR-WA-039") was specifically requested as an allusion to Launch Complex 39. Today, Civil Air Patrol cadets continue being 'launched' forward into adulthood from McChord's 'Launchpad 39'. I'll be sure to show this awesome film to the cadets!
What a magnificent program, projects, science, engineering... And what a magnificent time. I'd crawl back to that time on my bare knees if I could.
Fantastic! (Frantastic too!). Thank you for posting this video. So amazing at that time, to be reaching that far with so many unknowns. I am always fascinated by the industry of such projects-this is a real treat!
Daaaaaaamn, I never realized the Cape Canaveral facility would be THAT huge! Absolutely impressive indeed.
Gosh, I spent so much time on and around the pad (and VAB), just crazy to see these things before they were really things. Thank you!
Interesting the launch animation in 1964 was fairly close (as far as I could tell) to the real thing years later. I got to see the last Saturn V launch (Skylab) at the Cape; I still have vivid memories of the incredible noise and pressure, even where we were located at the VIP viewing stands. I think I still have some 35mm slides of it somewhere in the house.
Wow, it sounds like Lyndon B. Johnson's presentation was subjected to the Edison cylinder
Yeah, I noticed that too.
I’ve been to KSC but I would have so enjoyed a tour of it while it was under construction, true space pioneering!
Can you imagine the electrical job of the control center back in 1963?
Would have loved to have seen it go in...but I wasn't even born yet.
I was born at the end of May so as a Gemini I feel a bit more affinity to Project Gemini :)
This is amazing. Back in the 1990's I worked at Owen Steel in Columbia, SC, and in their downtown offices before they relocated they had pictures up inside the office of several of the launch pads that they had help fabricate steel for. A reminder that a project of this scale (the moon landing) involved people all over the country, some doing really advanced scientific activities, but many many others doing very mundane things like driving bulldozers, and cutting steel with band saws.
Some fine cars in there! I saw a black Cadillac that blew me away.
My granddad helped build this he was a superintendent for one of the electrical contractors
"Thank you so much for the good work you have done."
Several years ago I was at the launch control center during a tourist trip.
I still cannot believe I was there, within that historic building.
I am so glad you took the time to post this history for us to see! Thanks!
growing up at lancaster i found myself at KSC in 84 as a fleet
electronic tech Shuttle Systems, the first yr was hands off wile
obtaining security clearances and training classes while on the MLP
mobile launcher. i had the pleasure of riding on the zero level to
the pad many times.we were shifting gears at that time transitioning
from SHUTTLE R&D into production. Also we were to validate
vandenberg afb ground systems ..i could write a book..~~
Never realized the VAB could hold 4 Saturn 5's!!!! Dang that would have been something to see! Like out of a scifi movie!
I
That was magical. Thank you for sharing another cool video.
Can you imagine all the Master Specialties Twist-Lites being purchased at the time of the movie?
My great uncle worked in Huntsville at IBM back in the 60s throughout the 90s. Specifically, he worked at Redstone Arsenal. He's probably one of, if not THE most interesting person I know. Heck of a human being and still super smart. He's getting up there in age, though. 😔 Pretty sure he's in his 80s by now.
btw "gargantuan machines" that reminds me did you ever see that monster movie "The War of the Gargantuas"? that was pretty cool
Truly fascinating. Thanks for sharing, Fran.
President Johnson's speech sounds like the adults on the old Peanuts cartoons - "Whaa-wa -Wah-Wah"
The clapping sounded like a scene from Orson Welles ‘War of the Worlds’ - how times have changed!!! - Thanks for sharing Fran 🚀🌝
Class act thank you for your videos merry Christmas
Yeah, best one yet!!!
Very nice Fran. Seeing how close all of this is to the ocean makes me wonder how hurricanes or rising tides are/will be handled.
👍
Nice little film Fran!
If you look at the very first part of the video you can see the Blacktop surface they where planing to use, on top of the crawler road. After running the crawler the first time it destroyed the cover surface, after that happened it was decided that the top surface would only be gravel. My father drove us out to the cape on the Saturday after the test to see the destroyed road. Good thing they had only covered the fist few hundred feet to do the test!
Great film. It must have been so cool to be there when it was built; and to work there during the mid / late sixties!!!
Would love to see footage of the control room circuitry installation.
"You are on the good side of youtube recomendations."
Likely one of only existing film glimpses of the 'Nuns' in space training programs..
thunderbirds are go!
You left those last few seconds of no longer public domain music in there on purpose. I wonder if Elon has seen this. I wonder how he feels when he sees this.
Up, up, and away!
"Thunderbirds", indeed! Imagine being the jerk who parks one of the Mobile Servicing Structures in the Mobile Servicing Structure Parking Area in such a way that the parked Mobile Servicing Structure takes up two spaces. Mobile Servicing Structure.
And 50+ years later, and we still waiting in line for space travel..I'll find a better direction..
The minions behind the chain link fence...
Now 39A will be used for the next generation of rockets. Starship Is coming!
5:28 what particular interest in the new world space exploration do these nuns have?
No doubt that America is the greatest country in the world........unfortunately now a-days we have people running the country that are destroying it...so sad 😞
Hey! I would love to use this footage to build a 3D model of this place at this time.
Could we talk via email?
So long ago......
6:40 sounds like LBJ says "America will be the home of the free & the land of the brave" of course Sept 15th 1964 was less than a year after JFK was shot so we'll cut him some slack on the mixup..