You know the stock Saturn V footage I mean: those images from
Apollo 4, where the first stage separates and falls away, and a few
seconds later the interstage ring falls off. It's been used as the
pop cultural symbol of going into space since practically minutes after
the end of the November 1967 mission.
Last weekend in syndication Star Trek's remastered edition, with
new Enterprise special effects, was 'Assignment: Earth', in which Our
Heroes happen to be in 1968 observing the launch of a Saturn V, and that
stock footage is used.
The thing is: the episode originally aired the end of March 1968.
The episode's first draft itself was finished in December 1967. This
has got to be pretty near the first pop cultural use of the Apollo 4
interstage footage [1].
What I'm wondering is: *was* it the first? If it wasn't, then
what movie or TV show did use it first? Any ideas?
[1] In the episode, Gary Seven's smug computer describes the
interstage falling away as second-stage separation, and the second stage
ignition as the third-stage ignition. There are also many amusing, if
you look quick and are amused by such things, cases where stock footage
of the Saturn 500-F Facilities Integration Vehicle, a mockup made to
test the ability of hardware to manipulate the actual rocket, and the
Apollo 4 rocket are interchanged. Their markings are different; the
500-F has more plumage.
--
Joseph Nebus
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