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NASA's Original Apollo 11 Moon Landing Footage is Up for Auction

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:38AM   
from the strapped-for-cash dept.

martyb writes:

Now You Can Buy NASA's Own Original Apollo 11 Moon Landing Footage:

Got a player for 2-inch Quadruplex videotapes sitting around? You could view original NASA recordings of the Apollo 11 moon landing in your living room.

Sotheby's is auctioning off three first-generation tapes of the historic touchdown as part of its July 20 auction of space exploration artifacts set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

The tapes run a total of 2 hours and 24 minutes and capture moments including Neil Armstrong declaring, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Also on the tapes are the "long-distance phone call" with President Richard Nixon and the planting of the American flag on the lunar surface.

[...] Gary George, an engineering student and NASA intern, purchased the tapes for $217.77 at a government surplus auction in 1976. It's estimated they'll sell for at least a $1 million at the Sotheby's event.

I was under the impression that the original tapes had been lost or recorded over. Does anyone else remember hearing that? Either way, this is a irreplaceable national treasure and I am astonished at seeing these up for auction. I am hopeful some philanthropist steps up, buys them, perhaps makes a personal copy, and then donates them to the Library of Congress.

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Original Submission

• Lost and Found Lost and Found (Score: 5, Informative) by JNCF on Tuesday July 16 2019, @06:50AM (2 children)

  by JNCF (4317) on Tuesday July 16 2019, @06:50AM (#867443) Journal

  I was under the impression that the original tapes had been lost or recorded over.

  Time will tell: [time.com]

  The footage was among 1,150 reels that Gary George, a former NASA intern, purchased at a government surplus auction in 1976 for just $218, or about $975 in today’s dollars. George didn’t know the contents of the tapes for decades, and didn’t think they included anything of value. He had hoped to sell them to TV stations.

  It wasn’t until 2006, when NASA admitted the tapes had been lost, that George realized the value of what he had. His tape has reportedly been viewed only three times since 1976.

  Other, clearer recordings were likely reused or erased at NASA in the early 1980s.

  Probably deepfakes distracting us from the cities on the far side of the moon built by the deepstate secret space program preparing for the oncoming apocalypse when Nibiru returns in 2012.

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• Re:Lost and Found Re:Lost and Found (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:48PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:48PM (#867628)

  My understanding is that these are broadcast format tapes, not in the original "slow scan" format that the footage was transmitted from the Moon in. Having undergone both frame rate and resolution conversion, these are still not up to the original quality, but they might be the best quality versions surviving, simply due to having been copied fewer times and being well preserved.

  Parent

  • Re:Lost and Found (Score: 2) by JNCF on Tuesday July 16 2019, @07:04PM

    by JNCF (4317) on Tuesday July 16 2019, @07:04PM (#867662) Journal

    That's at the bottom of the Time quote:

    Other, clearer recordings were likely reused or erased at NASA in the early 1980s.

    Parent