A 70mm Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System (ALOTS) camera, mounted in a pod on a cargo door of a U.S. Air Force EC-135N aircraft, photographed this event in the early moments of the Apollo 11 launch. The mated Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V second (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-II" class="extiw" title="en:S-II">S-II</a>) and third (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-IVB" class="extiw" title="en:S-IVB">S-IVB</a>) stages pull away from the expended first (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-1C" class="extiw" title="en:S-1C">S-1C</a>) stage. Separation occurred at an altitude of about 38 miles, some 55 miles downrange from Cape Kennedy. The aircraft's pod is 20 feet long and 5 feet in diameter. Flying the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission are astronauts <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong" class="extiw" title="en:Neil Armstrong">Neil A. Armstrong</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Collins" class="extiw" title="en:Michael Collins">Michael Collins</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Aldrin" class="extiw" title="en:Buzz Aldrin">Edwin E. Aldrin Jr</a>.
NASA
1969-07-16
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