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I got a press release from NASA saying that they will be holding a press conference at 11:00 Eastern time (15:00 GMT) where they will present newly restored video of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The conference will be televised on NASA TV.
Is this the vaunted "lost footage" we’ve heard so much about? I don’t know. But I’ll be watching the conference to see what’s what.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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July 15th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
“Newly retouched” you mean!
Kidding, only kidding.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
What? Still no post on the shuttle Endeavour’s successful launch BA?
Seems to me you’ve missed out on a few developments here that I woulda thought you’d post about .. Not that I’d even dream of telling you what to do with your blog or anything but I am now wondering : Don’t you like the ‘Endeavour’ or its current mission or something, Phil?
Or, more likely, am I just being too impatient?
Click on my name above for the news link story – incl. ‘Endeavour’ launch video clip. In essence another successful launch to the ISS.
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Mis-typed my own name & so “now awaiting moderating” … D’OH!!! I am too impatient. ( Embarrassed Flying (space) sardines) 
July 15th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I think this is just the best quality broadcast recording they could find and clean. I’m sure I read that somewhere… but I don’t remember where.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Hope it is the lost footage! Although I would’ve thought they might wait until the exact anniversary before announcing it.
Still be cool to see it – even if the Hoax Believers will always continue blindly ignoring any and all contradictory evidence.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Unfortunately, it is not. If I understand it right, this is the new “digitally remastered” version.
While the quality will be better than what we know so far, it will still be quite a bit worse than what would be possible with the raw lost-tape footage.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Digitally remastered? Is this the footage they haven’t been able to release for 40 years because they didn’t have the technology to take out the special effects artifacts back then? Or is it the tape that will finally show, and give credit to, the brave sherpas who stepped out onto the moon first?
Or should I just stop being silly?
July 16th, 2009 at 12:03 am
An interesting 40th anniversary Question & Answer for y’all folks :
Qu : How many Apollo missions took place in 1969?
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A: Four
- Apollo 9 (McDivitt, Scott & Scwickart) in March – testing the LEM in LEO.*
- Apollo 10 (Cernan, Stafford & Young) in May – final dress rehearsal for the Moon landing.
- Apollo 11 (Armstrong, Aldrin & Collins) in July – First Moon landing.
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- Apollo 12 (Conrad, Bean & Gordon) in November – Second moon landing.
Indeed, Apollo 8 nearly but not quite makes that list too flying over Christmas time in Dec. 1968.
A thought occuring to me – & I don’t know the answer here – how does that compare with the number of shuttle launches in a year these days? Not that different? 4 or five missions per year?
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* LEM = Lunar Excursion Module, LEO =Low Earth Orbit.
July 16th, 2009 at 12:08 am
@Spectroscope
Another question, how many moon landings were there in 1969 and how many were there in 2009?
Does this mean people were smarter in the olden days? There goes my theory that people were stupid in ancient times.
More evidence in favour of the old timers. They didn’t have reality TV.
July 16th, 2009 at 12:43 am
@Spectroscope:
You are correct about the number of Shuttle flights launched per year, but, I seem to remember the promise of the Shuttle providing regular and cheap access to space. Something that it has failed miserably to deliver on both counts.
As people look to the future of manned Space Flight and lunar exploration after the Shuttle, I have often thought that it would have been much simpler to go back into the past, and resurrect the Saturn V, and modernize it with updated computers and technology.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:48 am
A couple things:
Here’s the link to a nearly ten minute viewing of the launch (apparently from TV):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGNryrsT7OI&feature=player_embedded
Turner Classic Movies is having a “Moon” marathon on the 20th…
check for your local time:
They Came From Beyond Space (B movie)
From the Earth to the Moon (From Verne)
First Men in the Moon (from Wells)
Twelve to the Moon (see also MST3K)
Destination Moon (George Pal & Robert Heinlein)
The Mouse on the Moon (Sequel to The Mouse That Roared)
Have Rocket, Will Travel (3 stooges)
Moon Pilot (Disney)
A Trip to the Moon (1920)
For All Mankind (Documentary)
The Right Stuff
Marooned (also MST3K’d)
Capricorn One (Teh Trooth)
J/P=?
July 16th, 2009 at 2:40 am
@ 7 shane :
@Spectroscope Another question, how many moon landings were there in 1969 and how many were there in 2009?
Well in 2009 none – and the same applies, sadly, to any & every year since 1970 when Apollo 17 the last Apollo mission landed and departed from the Lunar regolith.
I wish we’d gone back, I wish we’ll go back. Lunar return missions – and human Martian missions – seem to be something that’s perpetually twenty years away .. and has been for the last forty years.
Personally, I find it hard to celebrate the Apollo anniversary of our awesome, magnificent Moon landings without this gnawing sense of frustration and disappointment at how we could take that one giant leap tothe Moon only to fall on our backsides and take no more giant steps out into the cosmos. There’s so much yet to do and learn. So many “firsts” that have been delayed far too long.
Does this mean people were smarter in the olden days? There goes my theory that people were stupid in ancient times. More evidence in favour of the old timers. They didn’t have reality TV.
Nice one.
I don’t think anyone could reasonably claim that people before us were any smarter – or stupider – than us. Evolutions isn’t that fast a process. But people in the 1960’s were capable of doing things -notably going beyond Low Earth Orbit & landing on the Moon – that we, with all our technological advances and further scientific and engineering progress have lost the ability to accomplish. Its sad and I don’t really know why it is the case – other than a shift of priorities and economic and political circumstances.
Mind you, my point in comment 6 here was not so much to do with ‘Apollo vs Shuttle’ or ‘Now vs Then’ so much as a reminder that it was more than just one Moon-landing. We all remember Apollo 11 (or at least know of it even those of us too young to recall that day) while too many overlook all the other Apollo flights that also occurred. I guess I just wanted to remind y’all with that bit of Q & A trivia that Apollo wasn’t just the one big flight but many and much more …
@ 8. Michael L :
@Spectroscope: You are correct about the number of Shuttle flights launched per year, but, I seem to remember the promise of the Shuttle providing regular and cheap access to space. Something that it has failed miserably to deliver on both counts.
Yeah, its a great pity that the shuttle never lived up to what was originally promised. It is still an amazing machine – one of the more awesome and astounding things Humanity (& esp. NASA) has built but, yes, it has fallen well short of what we hoped it’d do.
As people look to the future of manned Space Flight and lunar exploration after the Shuttle, I have often thought that it would have been much simpler to go back into the past, and resurrect the Saturn V, and modernize it with updated computers and technology.
A good idea I agree.
Actually, some sort of combination of the Space Shuttle and Saturn V technologies appeals to me… a bit like the NASA plan B for the Moon as discussed here not too long ago …
July 16th, 2009 at 2:56 am
When I noted :
See what I mean via link & NASA animation here :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/07/03/nasas-plan-b/
Its a few pages further back on this blog than I thought it’d be – time rocketing by quicker than you expect as ever. Sigh.
Mind you, I like NASA’s plan A for the return to the Moon as well. I’d really just like to watch at least one of thees plans get past the planning stage and into the building and, better again, actual flying stage …
July 16th, 2009 at 3:15 am
I think NASA gives right definition of footage.
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William Brown
July 16th, 2009 at 3:51 am
“newly restored” would suggest a few things to me:
1. cleaning up 8 or 16mm film, touching up damaged frames, and possibly recoloring
2. working to get the best images off an old magnetic tape recorder, possibly touching up bad frames (usually not as good as restoring photographic film)
July 16th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Shane @ #7,
Competition is heating up. Again. Don’t you think?
July 16th, 2009 at 5:49 am
This is the lost footage, but remember, Richard C. Hoagland cautions us that a lot of image has been edited out to conceal the artifacts Apollo discovered and have kept tight in their “Dark Mission”.
Actually, I don’t believe anything Hoagland says. His vague images cannot be resolved into clearly resolved items so he is just wildly speculating.
July 16th, 2009 at 6:01 am
This story was featured on NPR this morning, really interesting story.
***Spoiler Alert***
On NPR, they said they never found the lost originals, they’ve likely been “taped over” by NASA because they were running out of magnetic tape to record satellite info. They were able to find the best resolution reproductions, then contracted a hollywood studio to digitally fix them.
July 16th, 2009 at 6:31 am
“Well in 2009 none – and the same applies, sadly, to any & every year since 1970 when Apollo 17 the last Apollo mission landed and departed from the Lunar regolith.”
Apollo 17 launched on December 7, 1972.
I remember it quite well, I was there.
“Personally, I find it hard to celebrate the Apollo anniversary of our awesome, magnificent Moon landings without this gnawing sense of frustration and disappointment at how we could take that one giant leap tothe Moon only to fall on our backsides and take no more giant steps out into the cosmos. There’s so much yet to do and learn. So many “firsts” that have been delayed far too long.”
Indeed. It’s more important to “save” Goldman-Sachs and other financial firms so they can reward their executives to the tunes of millions of dollars in bonuses for getting away with their misdeeds.
July 16th, 2009 at 6:33 am
ITEM 1 – NASA RELEASES PRELIMINARY RESTORED APOLLO 11 VIDEO � GSFC (NEW)
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, NASA released partially restored video of a series
of 15 memorable moments from the July 20 moonwalk. The source material for the restoration project is
the best of the available broadcast-format video. Lowry Digital, Burbank, Calif., is significantly enhancing
the video using the company�s proprietary software technology and other restoration techniques. The
video is part of a larger restoration project that will be completed in September and provide a newly
restored high definition video of the entire Apollo 11 moonwalk. The completed restoration will provide
the public with the highest quality video of this historic event.
(Video shows the partially restored footage of the Apollo 11 astronauts taking their first steps on the
moon and other scenes of significance. NASA plans to release the fully restored Apollo 11 video later
this fall. )
TRT: 22:00
Super: NASA
Center Contact: Rani Gran, 301.286.8955
HQ Contact: John Yembrick, 202-358-0602
For more info: http://www.nasa.gov/apollo40th
July 16th, 2009 at 6:41 am
NPR report this morning had the designer of the LM camera talking about this film release. He stated that they are highly confident that the original tapes are gone – they were recorded over when NASA faced a serious shortage of magnetic tape to collect sattelite data on. The new film consists of a compilation of footage gathered from the broadcast version – they went to numerous repositories around the world for their master tapes, collected the best segments of footage, then used a computer to clean up as much interference as they could without actually adding to the footage.
Sounds interesting – NPR said they have a link on their site to a preview segment.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:02 am
T minus 30 minutes. It’s a live countdown to 40 years later. I won’t waste your time trying to explain it, just check it out.
Warning: that site is VERY flash heavy.
July 16th, 2009 at 7:25 am
@15, Paul Weaver,
Yep, I heard the story too. Here’s a link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106637066
There is a side-by-side video example of Armstrong descending the LM ladder; clearly improved, but not so much that they destroyed the historical integrity of the footage. Nice work, IMO.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:02 am
The film was digitally remastered by Lucasfilm Ltd. The film will now feature various CG creatures as well as Jabba the Hutt. Oh, and now Aldrin gets out first
July 16th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Rob Lee said: “Oh, and now Aldrin gets out first
”
aaaaaaand I just blew coffee out my nose.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:18 am
“Going somewhere, Armstrong?”
July 16th, 2009 at 8:20 am
I think NASA’s released at least some of the footage early…?
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/apollo11.html
July 16th, 2009 at 8:38 am
I hope they didn’t remove all instances of weapons! They shouldn’t f*&% with the classics!
July 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
“That’s no moon…”
Rob Lee FTW though.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:36 am
it is so sad to save a few dollars they taped over the Apollo 11 telemetry tapes. with 20/20 hindsight that sounds like a stupid stupid thing to do. Should we take up a collection to buy NASA extra tapes so this does not happen ever again!
July 16th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Ugh. So according to the NASA guy, the slow scan tapes were wiped so they could be used for shuttle missions. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. I’ve got the Q & A going on behind me right now, and the NASA guy is taking some much deserved heat from the gathered hordes.
This is nothing more than digitized TV footage.
July 16th, 2009 at 9:56 am
I am in total awe. Why didn’t NASA have historians saving this material? Why didn’t they feel that they should EVEN saved the telemetry tapes. Its totally INSANE.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Charles @31: Not insane, merely bureaucratic and sad. (Which may in itself qualify as a definition for insanity.)
July 16th, 2009 at 10:13 am
@MathMike & Charles — It is very clear to me that the tapes were intentionally wiped by the reptilian aliens working in conjunction with the CIA, UN, Illuminati and MLB to cover up the hoax of the moon landing. Sorry, I figured that I would just get to it before the hoaxtards did.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:50 am
@Rob Lee: Don’t you think that it is far more likely that the FSM faked the landing, and simply doesn’t feel like letting us have the tapes?
July 16th, 2009 at 10:52 am
@Charles — Your hypothesis is fascinating to me — I had not considered it. Perhaps He was working in conjunction with the Invisible Pink Unicorn to conceal the reality of the China Teapot?
July 16th, 2009 at 11:00 am
@Rob Lee -Well the Pink unicorn wouldn’t be on the tapes, since they are black and white, but the teapot is a distinct possibility, one which I had not considered.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:10 am
@Charles — Yes, I am certain then the FSM wiped the tapes with His Noodly Appendage to conceal the reality of the Teapot Heresy. The Teapot is not visible on the lower quality tapes, but can be seen quite clearly on the master tapes.
July 16th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
As many of you will know, the BBC did the same thing with their early video tapes resulting in many hours of classic television lost including early episodes of Dr. Who.
They’ve been able to recover some from TV stations and private users who had their own copies but unfortunately this is not going to be possible with the Apollo tapes.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Please do not till me you are comparing episodes of Dr. Who with landing of the first human on the moon.
July 16th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Along these same lines, NASA will release LRO images of the Apollo sites on Friday:
GREENBELT, Md. — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has sent back its first images of Apollo lunar landing sites. The agency will release the images Friday, July 17, at noon and hold a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss the photos and future plans for the LRO mission.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
@Gerg
Why? Sometimes stuff just gets misplaced and turns up. Sometimes almost a century later. Case in point, the world’s first feature film The Story Of The Kelly Gang from 1906 of which only 10 minutes of the film was known to have survived. Then in 2006 another 11 minutes incorporating some of the existing footage was found in the UK bringing the total restoration to 17 minutes. Who knows what happened to the Apollo tapes in Australia?
July 16th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
@Charles
Gerg is saying that the circumstances are similar. Original tapes were recorded over and some of original episodes were later found stored at the ABC in Oz and elsewhere. Apollo is important and is arguably the most important achievement by humanity but Dr Who has some cultural significance too as does as any major piece of art.
I think you can almost argue that because the Apollo landings were essentially “footprints and photos” exercises they may in fact be the largest most expensive performance art in history. A huge technological, cultural and artistic achievement.