30 seconds later the interstage separation was captured by film cameras on the second stage and provided us with one of the most famous pieces of rocketry footage ever seen as the huge metal ring cartwheeled away, lit up in flame by the otherwise invisible exhaust of the second stage engines.

Over a third of the height and two thirds of the mass of the rocket was in the first stage, designated the S-IC. 2 and a half minutes into the flight this was cut loose to fall back into the Atlantic. The second stage, S-II, then took over.

Human Spaceflight: 09 Nov 1967. A huge milestone for the Apollo programme as the colossal Saturn V rocket is launched for the first time. Designated Apollo 4, this was an all-up test of the massive, 3-stage launch vehicle that would hopefully send astronauts to the Moon before the end of the decade.