AP Photo

The morning of Nov. 14th, 1969, was stormy at NASA's Cape Canaveral launch site, but the Saturn V on the launchpad was going to the moon regardless. Conditions weren't bad enough to force a scrub, and President Nixon was on site so no one wanted to see the schedule slip. At 11:22 a.m., the monster rocket roared to life and cleared the tower. It was a perfect launch for the first 37 seconds.

Then, all hell broke loose.