NASA has lost moon landing footage

[chillzero]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4791883.stm

They seem to have been hoping to stop the CT rumour mill, but I'm sure this will only fuel it further.

[Hishighness]

This is outrageous. How can they lose footage of the most important moment in human history? The most amazing achievement ever?

They'd better find it.

[StewartP]

I saw this news item and just shook my head. They've misplaced it? Fortunately there must be hundreds (thousands) of copies of it. Or at least the crucial moments. because its been broadcast so many times.

[LTC8K6]

http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/apollo11/Parkes_Apollo11_TV_quality.html

An example of the improvement in quality we can expect when the footage is brought out of storage.

I don't think NASA is even looking for the footage, the people who took it are.
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/apollo11/apollo11_sstv_search_report.html

[MilwaukeeMike]

This is outrageous. How can they lose footage of the most important moment in human history? The most amazing achievement ever?

They'd better find it.

They havent lost the footage, they just need to go and find it.

"“I would simply like to clarify that the tapes are not lost as such, which implies they were badly handled, misplaced and are now gone forever. That is not the case,” explained John Sarkissian, operations scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s (CSIRO) Parkes Radio Observatory in Parkes, Australia.

Sarkissian said the tapes were appropriately handled and archived in the mid-1970s after the hectic activity of the Apollo lunar landing era was over. “We are confident that they are stored at [NASA’s] Goddard Space Flight Center [in Greenbelt, Md.] … we just don’t know where precisely,” he told Space.com. It is important to note, Sarkissian added, that there is no inference of wrongdoing, incompetence or negligence on the part of NASA or its employees.
"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14337395/

[alfaniner]

I first read that as "NASA has 'lost' moon landing footage", like finding the missing footage from "Lawrence of Arabia", for example. That would've fueled the CT'ers also, saying they kept that hidden from us all this time.

Still, it wouldn't hurt for people to see the original footage again. The edited version is shown so often that few people recall what actually happened.

Everyone who is old enough remembers watching Neil Armstrong come down the ladder, take that small hop onto the Moon's surface, then saying "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

I "remembered" it that way too, until seeing it on "As It Happened" on a cable channel for one of the anniversaries (25th, I think). They showed the real-time news video broadcast with Walter Cronkite. When the got to the moment, I saw Armstrong take his little hop, then waited, and waited, and waited...

"As It Happened"... there was some small discussion first about the condition of the Moon's surface, then he said "OK, I'm going to step off the LEM now." He gently leans over and precisely places his foot onto the surface, then says his phrase.

Just about every clip I've seen since the original broadcast must have shown a certain edited version, because it is much more "exciting" to see that large motion instead of the barely discernable one that did happen.

Check it out for yourself.

Nasa Web Page with Moon Landing Video (http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/apollo11_35th.html)
Go to the right side for the Original TV footage. Click to play or right click to save to your hard drive.

I have to say that I'm rather disappointed in that this was not that easy to find. I Googled "moon landing video" and got tons of sites on the first page about the damn hoax. So I added "NASA" to the Google line and that got me to the right place.

[ferd burfle]

They seem to have been hoping to stop the CT rumour mill, but I'm sure this will only fuel it further.

Not surprisingly, Richard Hoagland is already short-stroking this one:

http://www.enterprisemission.com/Missing-Apollo.html

Don't ask me what he said on the page, I find his "Find the Popes in the pizza" ravings absolutely unreadable.

Cheers,

Ferd

[PygmyPlaidGiraffe]

the United States government currently can't account for 10s of billions of Tax payer dollars. Government and corporate organisations lose track of a lot of things.

[Stellafane]

No problem, they can just pull out the old props and stage and re-shoot the whole thing like they did last time. Maybe this time Armstrong won't screw up his line. ("That's one small step for a man, Neil.")

[Verde]

This is outrageous. How can they lose footage of the most important moment in human history? The most amazing achievement ever?


I see no smileys, but I suspect you jest anyway.

The program that led to the moon landing was a fantastic example of the ability of a well funded group of engineers to overcome the inate intransigence of nature.

Most amazing? I would put the following ahead of it:

4) development of the internal combustion engine.
3) manufacturability of penicillin.
2) PCR, and the entire industry which it spawned,

And:

1) the Diamondbacks winning the 2001 World series.

I suspect others may have differing views on the status of:
a) most important
b) most amazing

Verde,

[PS. one of my comments was not intended to be taken seriously.
You guess]

[DRBUZZ0]

Hmm. I was unaware that the Apollo 11 transmissions were Slow-Scan TV and not regular NTSC-Standard TV. (30 FPS).

How many "original" copies are in existance? (IE: copies taken directly from the broadcast and not from a common secondary source)

Perhaps from a large number of original images, a higher quality image could be built?

[Obviousman]

This going to be a lose / lose situation for NASA.

If the slow-scan tapes can't be recovered, it'll be so-called "evidence" of a NASA coverup.

If they are found, the Moon Hoaxers will say that they have been "altered" to remove evidence of a "coverup" - and Jack White will be amongst the first of them, you betcha.

Of course, this is simply the Apollo 11 tapes. The Moon Hoaxers will ignore that little fact.

[The Atheist]

Aren't you avoiding the fact that there ARE no tapes to be found? Sheesh!

[gtc]

In more important news, many of the early episodes of Dr Who are still missing.

[Obviousman]

In more important news, many of the early episodes of Dr Who are still missing.

And so are the first colour episodes of The Aunty Jack Show.

[Obviousman]

Not quite, but still an exciting find.

The bit about "never released to the public" is wrong, though, as we will no doubt discover.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/one-small-step/2006/08/19/1155408073519.html

[Keerax]

An example of the improvement in quality we can expect when the footage is brought out of storage.


Hopefully the higher quality images would shut people up about prop letters on rocks.