I was 11 years old at the time and I witnessed the Apollo 11 lift off at the Kennedy Space Center, the rocket was headed to the moon. I was able to view the whole takeoff at the space center because my dad was working for a local newspaper, and he took me with him. I was always obsessed with space, so I was thrilled to see it.
There were close to one million people attending the launch, many of them were journalists and almost all members of the United States congress were also there. It was crowded and when there was no more room left people were sitting on top of their cars.
People were using binoculars to get a better view of the liftoff across the body of water that was separating us from the actual launch site. It almost felt like a festival, some people were seated in foldable chairs, and some were celebrating the event with drinks. Then the countdown began...
20 seconds and counting.... Came out from the loudspeakers and the crowd began to cheer and count down together.
3...
2...
1...
As liftoff approached, people were blocking their eyes from the sun while looking at the rocket. It was very loud, abnormally loud, I thought maybe something was wrong and maybe an engine exploded but the liftoff was flawless.
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