The Saturn V line of heavy launch vehicles used for NASA’s Apollo program were still to this day the most powerful rockets successfully flown, and this video shows an intimate on-pad view of the ignition and liftoff of the Saturn V SA-506 that launched Apollo 11 to the Moon at 13:32 GMT on July 16, 1969.

Captured at 500 frames per second, the mesmerizing 8 minutes of high-speed film footage represent 30 seconds in real time, as described in the video by Mark Gray of Spacecraft Films. (There’s no sound from the launch itself but the narration explains what’s happening.)

You’re definitely going to want to full-screen this one:

*Reposted in honor of Apollo50

Also 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 clips are cool 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, if only because of time.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. Visit NASA’s Apollo50 commemorative site here. 

Credit: Spacecraft Films (and NASA/Kennedy Space Center of course!)