CBS News is currently livestreaming its original broadcast from fifty years ago, when the original Apollo 11 crew launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to put the first humans on the Moon.
The event is being livestreamed in real time, and while the launch won’t occur until 9:32 am ET today, you can watch what Americans saw on July 16, 1969. As you can see from the screenshot above, Walter Cronkite was live from Florida when it originally aired in 1969.
The livestream, which is available on YouTube, is incredibly cool to see, especially with the original 1960s commercials. So far we’ve seen ads for toilet bowl cleaner, carpets, and amazingly cheap trips on Greyhound buses.
The news interruptions include everything from updates on the Vietnam War to human interest stories about mailmen. And it really does transport you back 50 years to what it was like watching the original launch, something that many people (myself included) missed, on account of not being born yet.
The 50th anniversary of the Moon landing is coming up this Saturday and there are plenty of cool events going on around the country. But if you can’t or would rather not leave home, this livestream is a great alternative.