Apollo 11 Original Videotape Recordings to be Auctioned

Ordinarily, NASA does a wonderful job of keeping control of their assets. But their budget was cut post-Apollo, and the decision was made to reuse old data tapes. If anyone should be considered to blame, it was Senator William Proxmire.

 

Maybe they digitally archived them.

 

They did a very thorough job of searching for the original tapes and determined they could not be found. They hired a company and did the best possible job of converting the 2-inch quadrature tape that was recorded at the Johnson space center, and improving the detail. That was released several years ago.

Unless this was a 14-inch reel of 1" 120 IPS data tape, that definitely has the original 320 line, 10 frames per second video, there's no point in acquiring this.

 

That’s no excuse. The legislature is as much a part of the government as, say, the board of directors are part of a private company.

And haven’t like half of the moon rocks gone missing on NASA’s watch too?

 

What’s cool is that one of the most important moments in human history was so well documented.

 

We are as much a part of the government. And we decided to cut the NASA budget.

Besides, are you suggesting this wouldn't have happened with a business enterprise?

 

In what way did I suggest that?

 

You can download NASA's best version of Armstrong's first steps at this page:

Apollo 11 HD Videos

 

I started a new thread on this subject, not knowing that this thread existed.

 

Yes. He moved a few times after purchasing them. He always kept them in climate controlled storage units.

 

Yes. NASA's a/v department was looking for them. They were looking for the best possible existing copy as a starting point for digital enhancement. The project was to be completed for the 40th anniversary.

 

The owner wanted to give them to NASA. Astronauts have to keep up on their flying hours. The owner wanted to hand deliver the tapes, but wanted to be flown in one of NASA's 2 seater jets (T38?). This would have been no cost to NASA, since it just involved an astronaut needing hours to go pick him up.

 

NASA DID have them, but accidentally put them in a lot of surplus tapes, and auctioned off the lot of tapes.

 

Got a case of beer that says Mr. Feist is dead wrong. I've seen the original next to the digitally enhanced 40th anniversary. The original blows it away.

 

They weren't recorded at JSC.

 

Nope.

 

looking forward to see what this brings at auction!

 

Yes. Hopefully the winning bidder will share.

 

of course buy like thing cheap or for free...

 

Nope.

 

WAAAAAY better than anything else.

 

Nope.

 

There was a tv series that did stories on lost historical items. One of the segments was about these tapes, and they were offering a reward. I immediately went to their website, but they already knew. It must have been a rerun.

As a side, the owner actually contacted the tv show "Pawn Stars". They just absolutely refused to believe that he could possibly have them, so they passed on putting him in the show.

 

$1.82 mil

 

In the words of Ben Feist, the audio restoration expert for the Apollo 11 documentary and Apolloinrealtime.org this was "snake oil."

The best possible case is that it is another copy, recorded on an additional 2" machine of the same signal from the "optical converter" - a camera aimed at the monitor showing the 320 10 fps video.