CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- It's a sight that hasn't been seen at the Kennedy Space Center in more than 30 years -- a mighty Saturn 5 rocket is rolled out to its launch pad loaded with an Apollo spacecraft destined to carry another crew to the Moon.

Perhaps one of the most awe inspiring moments of the trip was when the rocket, riding atop a crawler transporter that still is in use today, pulled free of the giant doors of the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building. From any distance or angle, it was an impressive scene.

In this image, the Apollo 12 stack is rolled out to pad 39A on Sept. 8, 1969. The mission flew from Nov. 14 to Nov. 24 -- 34 years ago this week -- with Navy astronauts Pete Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon aboard. Conrad and Bean would walk on the Moon while Gordon kept busy in lunar orbit.

Apollo 12 is usually remembered as the flight that was struck by lightning after launch, and as the mission in which almost no television of the Moonwalk was seen after the camera was accidentally pointed at the sun, frying its electronics.

Credit: NASA