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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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29

NASA: Oops, We Erased the Moon Landing Tapes

Footage likely recorded over when tape supply was low

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(Newser) – After searching 3 years for the original tapes of the 1969 moon landing, NASA officials realized they’d spaced: The footage had most likely been taped over, NPR reports. They picked through “racks of documents, tapes, all kinds of things from NASA and other agencies,” says a searcher, before it occurred to them that NASA had run low on tapes over the decades and had begun recycling them.

The original tapes featured the best recordings of the landing; they had to be converted to appear on television, which severely hurt the quality. But all isn’t lost: The searchers began combining the best television footage and enhancing it with help from Hollywood—so a better video of the milestone is on its way.

In this July 20, 1969, file photo, astronaut Edwin
In this July 20, 1969, file photo, astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin poses for a photograph beside the US flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.   (Neil Armstrong, NASA)
In this July 20, 1969, file photo, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E.
In this July 20, 1969, file photo, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the US flag on the lunar surface.   (NASA)
In this July 20, 1969, file photo, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, is seen inside the Lunar Module while it rested on the lunar surface.
In this July 20, 1969, file photo, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, is seen inside the Lunar Module while it rested on the lunar surface.   (NASA)
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29 comments
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Unaffiliated
Jul 16, 09 12:44 PM CDT
Waiting for the conspiracy theorists to start banging their pots and pans over this one... Reply
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+9
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JonmarkP
Jul 16, 09 3:05 PM CDT
This is wonderful for the Palin Evangelicals, who think pro wrestling is real and the moon landings were fake.
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Newser001
Jul 16, 09 12:47 PM CDT
This isn't new news... Its been known for quite some time. Reply
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Newser001
Jul 16, 09 2:02 PM CDT
1.) The news that the tapes were missing broke publicly on August 5, 2006 when the printed and online versions of The Sydney Morning Herald published the story with the title One giant blunder for mankind: how NASA lost moon pictures. 2.) The Goddard Center's Data Evaluation Laboratory, which has the only known piece of equipment capable of reading the missing tapes, was set to be closed in October 2006 causing some to fear that, even if the tapes are later found, it might not be possible to read and copy them. 3.) A January 2007 article stated that the missing Apollo 11 tapes have not been found.[11] As of July 2007 the tapes are still missing.[2] An amateur 8 mm film movie of about 15 minutes of the Apollo 11 SSTV images (before conversion) was rediscovered in 2005 and is available on DVD. 4.) On July 16, 2009 NASA held a media briefing where it released improved video footage from the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk – some of which have been in storage for nearly 40 years. They concluded that the original tapes with the SSTV signal that had been shipped to Goddard were routinely erased and reused a few years later. A backup copy of the tapes that was made in Australia was also erased after Goddard received the tapes. There is documentation of two hours of the Apollo 11 moonwalk SSTV being recorded in Australia on a different format of tape, but these tapes have not been found.
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Newser001
Jul 16, 09 6:00 PM CDT
(National Geographic) Buzz Aldrin, First Man (to Pee) on the Moon, Sounds Off - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090716-moon-landing-buzz-aldrin-pee.html
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