I got to see the apollo 11 as it stood inside the Vertical assembly building (VAB) two weeks before it lifted off. I was 14 years old. Toured the crawler that carried it to the launch pad and also the launch pad. Unfortunately I didn't get to see lift off I did go back to kennedy space center many years later. I worked on the space shuttle in its research and development phase at the michoud plant in new orleans. I operated and kept in repair the dual proportion pump that sprayed the foam on the external tank. I also made and applied the superlightabtor heat shield onto the bottom of the external fuel tank. I was one of 7 people who knew how to operate the $1,750,000 pump. 4 of those were its designers/engineers. I went with the 4 designing engineers to cape kennedy and helped train the workers at cape kennedy. I cried when the Challenger exploded..and was stunned when the Columbia disentergrated on re entry...it was the spray foam that hit the wing during lift-off damaging it. They blame improper training of the crew who applied the foam. I did not train that crew...I had intense training, 12/16 hours a day for 9 months without a day off. I trained the next ones to learn just as hard...no mistakes could be made...no slack given. We sprayed by hand in the early days and shaved it and shaped it by hand. By myself I shaped and shaved the first 13 by hand. It had to be exactly one inch thick within +/- 15/thousands of an inch. It took 6 months to build the first one....now they can crank them out one every 2 weeks. Robotic arms spray them now.
I'm never sure if your stories are regarding RL or SL... maybe because when you tell SL stories, you make it sound really serious. If this is RL, then it's pretty impressive