Editing Apollo 4 (section)

==Public interest and media coverage==
VIPs swarmed to KSC in the days before the launch. Von Braun arrived on November 6, scheduled for an exclusive executive dinner and conference that evening. NASA executives, figures from industry, Congressional leaders and diplomats also came for the launch.{{sfn|Bilstein 1996|p=355}} Each NASA center involved had a list of VIP guests, as did NASA headquarters in Washington, and duplications were sorted out so each center's director could invite guests personally. They watched the launch from uncovered [[bleacher]]s near the VAB. NASA set up press headquarters in [[Cocoa Beach, Florida|Cocoa Beach]], where media representatives were accredited, and offered tours of KSC to visiting journalists, as well as a half-hourly shuttle service. NASA provided extensive telephone facilities for the media at the press site near LC-39, at their expense. KSC workers and their dependents watched the launch from near their work assignments.<ref name = "moonport vip">{{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Charles D. |last2=Faherty |first2=William Barnaby |title=Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations |url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/contents.html |access-date=September 28, 2021 |year=1978 |publisher=NASA |id=NASA SP-4204 |chapter=Press, VIPs, Tourists, Dependents |chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ch19-7.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 23, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080123133438/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/contents.html }} Ch.19-7.</ref> In addition, 43 employees of contractors who had performed in an exemplary manner were selected as "Manned Flight Awareness" honorees, given a VIP tour of KSC, a social evening in which six astronauts participated, and a view of the launch.<ref name = "moonport launch">{{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Charles D. |last2=Faherty |first2=William Barnaby |title=Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations |url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/contents.html |access-date=September 28, 2021 |year=1978 |publisher=NASA |id=NASA SP-4204 |chapter=The Launch of Apollo 4 |chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ch19-6.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 23, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080123133438/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/contents.html }} Ch.19-6.</ref>

Apollo 4, being the first flight of the Saturn{{nbs}}V, gained intense media coverage, and writers struggled to convey to the public the size of the launch vehicle, stating that it would tower well over the [[Statue of Liberty]] and be thirteen times as heavy. North American, in a handout to the media, noted that the 3000-ton Saturn{{nbs}}V comfortably outweighed a "good-sized navy [[destroyer]]".{{sfn|Bilstein 1996|p=354}} On the day before launch, Mueller, Phillips, von Braun, Deputy Administrator [[Robert C. Seamans]] and Kennedy Space Center Director [[Kurt Debus]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Apollo 4 pre-launch press conference|publisher=[[NASA]]|date=November 8, 1967|url=https://uah.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16608coll1/id/8428/|access-date=October 15, 2021|archive-date=January 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119052603/https://uah.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16608coll1/id/8428/|url-status=dead}}</ref> held an outdoor press conference for more than a thousand journalists, including some from the [[Soviet Union]], with the Saturn{{nbs}}V in the background.{{sfn|Seamans 2005|pp=78–80}}