The Saturn V line of heavy launch vehicles used for NASA’s Apollo program were to this day the most powerful rockets ever used, and this video shows an intimate on-pad view of the ignition and liftoff of the one that carried Apollo 11 into space on July 16, 1969. Captured at 500 frames per second, the mesmerizing 8 minutes of footage represent 30 seconds in real time (as described in the video by Mark Gray of Spacecraft Films.)

Why? Because watching giant machines ride controlled mega-explosions into space will never not be fun!

You can view a similar high-speed video of the Apollo 13 Saturn launch here, and check out some of the interesting Apollo 11 post-launch “B-roll” footage captured by the many cameras set up around the pad below:

These film clips are interesting because they give views of what was happening around the launch site, both during and after liftoff… things usually edited out of news footage or documentaries.

Learn more about the Saturn V vehicle here.

Credit: Spacecraft Films (and NASA of course)