Nasa finds missing moon landing tapes

[BURNING MAN]

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: NASA FINDS MISSING MOON LANDING TAPES

ECSTATIC space officials at Nasa could be about to unveil one of their most stunning discoveries for 40 years — new and amazingly clear footage of the first moon landing.
The release of the new images next month could be one of the most talked about events of the summer.

The television images the world has been used to seeing of the historic moment when Neil Armstrong descended down a ladder onto the moon’s surface in 1969 is grainy, blurry and dark.

The following scenes, in which the astronauts move around the lunar lander, are so murky it is difficult to make out exactly what is going on, causing conspiracy theorists to claim the entire Apollo 11 mission was an elaborate fraud.

However, viewers have only ever seen such poor quality footage because the original analogue tapes containing the pictures beamed direct from the lunar surface were lost almost as soon as they were recorded.

Instead, a poor quality copy made from a 16mm camera pointing at a heavily compressed image on a black and white TV screen has been the only record of the event.

The Sunday Express can now reveal that the missing tapes containing the original high quality images have been found.

If the visual data can be retrieved, Nasa is set to reveal them to the world as a key plank of celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the landings next month.

The tapes show in much more detail than almost anyone has previously seen the surface of the moon beneath the patriotic symbol of the US flag.

Crucially, they could once and for all dispel 40 years of wild conspiracy theories.

The low grade, dark and grainy television pictures that were beamed around the world on July 21 1969 were intended to give Americans just a glimpse of their country’s greatest exploratory achievement.

Technology at the time meant Neil Armstrong’s film, recorded using a special lunar camera, went through a series of processes, each of which marked a step down in quality before it hit people’s living rooms.

From the moon, the signal was beamed to the Earth’s closest tracking station at the Parkes Observatory in Australia where, along with other important data, it was recorded on to high-grade magnetic tapes.

From there, the raw images were downsized to American television resolutions by a special scanner in Sydney, heavily compressed so they could be transmitted live, and then relayed to the US via the Intelsat III satellite.

The final loss in quality came when Nasa made its US recording of the event—the one always seen in archive footage—by simply placing a 16mm film camera in front of a television monitor in the US.

However, it is the original magnetic tapes recorded back at the Parkes Observatory in Australia that contained the unadulterated and highest quality images.

To the later horror of researchers and scientists, it was those tapes that went missing.

Houston finally admitted to the world it had a problem four years ago and launched a desperate plea for help, issuing a ‘wanted’ notice with clues to where the elusive tapes might be.

Most suspected they had been shipped from Australia to an American archive and then mislaid.

However, recently scientists looking for other data stumbled across a number of Nasa tapes in a storage facility in Perth, Australia.

They thought they merely contained details of moon dust from several Appollo missions.

But Nasa confirmed to the Sunday Express that they also contain the video data of the Apollo 11 landing.

“We’re talking about the same tapes,” a Nasa spokesman said when challenged.

Perhaps unhappy that a secret they had planned to grandly announce in three weeks had been rumbled, he added: “At this point, I’m not prepared to discuss what has or has not been found.

“The research team is preparing its final report and we’ll release those findings publicly in the coming weeks.”

When asked for an interview with the research team, the Nasa official appeared to give the game away.

“Sure,” he said, “although we’re not likely to scoop ourselves on much.”

LINK

[Area-51]

Well, that´s interesting. how can such an institute at the size of NASA, lose some of the most important tapes in the history of mankind and suddenly find them again. where were they? in NASA´s basement?

I doubt more and more that the moonlanding tapes are real.

[kidflash2008]

This is a fascinating story, unfortunately Michael Jackson's death will overshadow much of the news to come out for some time now.

[Terminator]

Originally Posted by Area-51

Well, that´s interesting. how can such an institute at the size of NASA, lose some of the most important tapes in the history of mankind and suddenly find them again. where were they? in NASA´s basement?

I doubt more and more that the moonlanding tapes are real.

Perhaps in 40 years, they'll stumble across the missing CIA videos.....

[kidflash2008]

Area-51, you would be surprised where they find old records in the government. When I was in the Air Force, we found several WWII bomb navigational devices in an old quonset hut. They were brand new still in their original packing. The supply system can lose items, and it can take years to find something if lost. Film prints are the same, as they can end up in basement filing systems and forgotten about.

[Clifurd]

Wow. I will be VERY....VERY surprised if they actually release/broadcast the alleged video footage of the "first" moon landing. I understand that important things can get lost in strange places, but that only happens if you are lazy and don't take the matter at hand on for yourself. They should not have let other people transport the tapes in the first place is what I'm getting at. If they were shipped in the right hands everything would have been fine. Also why should the original footage be only "intended as a glimpse of our "greatest discovery""?

[kidflash2008]

Clifurd, the government has losing stuff down as an art form. It is surprising how they can misplace things and not rediscover them for decades. It does not help that they have warehouses that are full of boxes and files that are never gone through. The government is a pack rat, and they keep everything. Keeping tabs on it is another idea that is foreign to them.

[Area-51]

Originally Posted by kidflash2008

Area-51, you would be surprised where they find old records in the government. When I was in the Air Force, we found several WWII bomb navigational devices in an old quonset hut. They were brand new still in their original packing. The supply system can lose items, and it can take years to find something if lost. Film prints are the same, as they can end up in basement filing systems and forgotten about.

Crazy. I can´t believe, that they just throw these tapes around, as if they were junk.

But the interesting fact is: When they throw arround some of the tapes, which aren´t that important, were do they keep the ones that actually are important?

[kidflash2008]

They actually put the tapes in a padded box and have them shipped to a location for future use. The problem is the box holding the tapes may go to another depot or location. If there is no real urgency to the box, the receiving area will just put them in a storage facility (quonset hut or warehouse type facility). It is not really thrown around like waste material, but it does get put away in a safe place.

Tapes and items that are important or in use are in the possession of the units which are responsible for them. Even the units put away items that are not frequently used, and they can be forgotten about. Tapes that have classified information are treated much differently than unclassified material. The classified items have to be logged in as to their location.

Large countries like the USA, Russia and China have much more equipment to monitor than smaller countries. It means that much of the older stuff can be put away and forgotten about. Smaller countries have less items to deal with, and may only have a couple of depots to store the items at.

[Area-51]

Originally Posted by kidflash2008

They actually put the tapes in a padded box and have them shipped to a location for future use. The problem is the box holding the tapes may go to another depot or location. If there is no real urgency to the box, the receiving area will just put them in a storage facility (quonset hut or warehouse type facility). It is not really thrown around like waste material, but it does get put away in a safe place.

Tapes and items that are important or in use are in the possession of the units which are responsible for them. Even the units put away items that are not frequently used, and they can be forgotten about. Tapes that have classified information are treated much differently than unclassified material. The classified items have to be logged in as to their location.

Large countries like the USA, Russia and China have much more equipment to monitor than smaller countries. It means that much of the older stuff can be put away and forgotten about. Smaller countries have less items to deal with, and may only have a couple of depots to store the items at.

Ah, I understand. An yes, every project is documented, and somewhere these documents have to be stored.