World exclusive: NASA Finds Missing Moon Landing Tapes : Update

I was checking Reuters for anything new on the tapes and found this article from March 5, 2009.

Renaissance Entertainment & Media Group, LLC has finalized an agreement with the owner of a set of Apollo 11 lost reels of tape which are believed to be the best quality broadcast video tapes of the APOLLO 11 EVA.

Mr. Gary George of Las Vegas, Nevada had purchased the reels at a GSA auction sometime in June of 1976. The Apollo 11 EVA tapes were included in a total purchase of 1150 (one thousand one hundred fifty) tapes of assorted sizes for a purchase price of $ 217.77 dollars (two hundred seventeen and seventy-seven cents). Mr. George was an Engineering Intern at NASA at the time of the purchase.

Renaissance has formed Tranquility Pictures, LLC to produce a Documentary film based on the "Lost Tapes" and the Gary George story to be released for the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Walk.

continues here...

There isn't much about Tranquility Pictures LCC that I can find...no website. A lot of mentions of them in realtion to the tapes and a forthcoming film on the 'lost tapes.' Gary George also appears to exist in connection to the 'tapes.' What gives? I've found a biography for a musician that's played on the soundtrack for the film...

July Moon ( Tranquility Pictures, LLC ) - 2009 Drum Track for theme song. Original music by Scott Rodell and Kelly Stephens. Renaissance has formed Tranquility Pictures, LLC to produce a Documentary film based on the "Lost Tapes" and the Gary George story to be released for the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Walk. The Apollo 11 Mission has been a source of mystery and disbelief since Neil Armstrong first set foot on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969 and is considered to be the most important event of the last century!

Bradley John Sanders

On the website 'Nasawatch' it's more interesting as they report...

"[Richard] Nafzger is currently preparing a report on the results of the search and cannot discuss them until NASA releases the report, the date of which is uncertain. "But since I am not running down the street waving a flag and shouting 'Eureka!' you can draw your own conclusions. The big picture is that there is an explanation for everything," he says." "Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Karen Person, head of the Renaissance Entertainment & Media Group, is not waiting for Nafzger's results. She says she has acquired one of the original 2-in. NASA recordings of the broadcast video and is using it as the basis of a documentary titled July Moon, which she hopes to have in theaters for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing on July 20. The video has been transferred to MPEG-4 format and parts have been enhanced, she says."

Missing, Lost, and Found Moon Images

The movie's due to be shown July 20th, but which tapes will feature in it?

I must chirp in here. There is misinformation presented in the original article as well as some incorrect facts in a few responses.

First and foremost, the article states that "high-resolution" tapes were found. It is worth mentioning the imagery fed back to earth was via "Slow-Scan" due to limited bandwidth of era technology.

(The "Slow-Scan was @ 320 lines of resolution @ 10 frames per second.) Not real-time and hence "jerky" motion.
That video data stream was "Scan-converted" or "Up-Rezzed" to Standard
NTSC. (525 Scan Lines @ 30 fps.)

It is not clear whether the "Original" Slow-Scan or the "Scan Converted" tapes were found if at all. ( So far, I am unable to glean if the "Slow-Scan" raw feed was recorded at all. (One would assume.) Live TV, on the fly.

Apparently, the Up-Converted video WAS recorded according to:

"I set up my Nikon F camera on a tripod in front of the RCA Scan Converter 14-inch HP TV monitor and played back the Ampex VR-660 recording of the scan converter output while snapping away with the camera.”

www.honeysucklecreek.net...

Also, I am not sure about the image that Zorgon posted about exactly what the tape should look like. Perhaps that was a "Data" tape, but a 2" Quad Helical tape would look more like this:



"IF" the tapes re-surface, don't expect a miracle on image quality.
Better than Kinescoped (filmed off monitor) but not Hi Rez. And of moderate to poor quality, even in B/W Standard Def.

(Oh gosh, Zorgon is gonna tear me up.) Shivers.

Just sayin.'

Thanks....KK


[edit on 29-6-2009 by kinda kurious]

reply to post by Kandinsky


How weird Renaissance? Las Vegas? and no one in our loop here has heard of this? Dang it I must be getting old

Your last link also says this

Keith's note: There are three projects outlined in this story - Lunar Orbiter, Apollo (NASA), and Apollo (someone else):

"The most visible of the archeologists is arguably Dennis Wingo, head of Skycorp Inc., a small aerospace engineering firm in Huntsville, Ala. He's the driving force behind the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, operating out of a decommissioned McDonald's (since dubbed McMoon's) at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. The project's goal is to recover and enhance as many of the original lunar landing images as possible."

Something is afoot to be sure I will see what I can dig up on Gary locally

edit to add

I have a Gary R George officer in a local ski club here. Dropped him a note to see if its the same but doubt it



[edit on 29-6-2009 by zorgon]

OK, sorry...

More info here reveals that the original SSTV data tapes are, in fact, of higher resolution than the "scan-converted." This document also references 1" wide 14" diameter
Data tapes that resemble the ones posted by Zorgon.

www.honeysucklecreek.net...

(Scroll thru to see pictures.)

The question, for me, remains......which of the two formats were allegedly found.

Regards.....KK




[edit on 29-6-2009 by kinda kurious]

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Forget the tapes and watch what the new lunar orbitor will show soon as it flys by all the recrded landing sites. hey maybe it'll snap that strange shape on the dark side?

is this "new data" or tapes of other missions??

The link seems to show things i have seen??

Originally posted by gottago
Of course this is terrific, unexpected news, but really, how on earth did they lose the tapes in the first place?

The skeptic in me will wait until I actually see the footage to believe this ridiculous saga.

the moon landings as we know them were all fake. however you got to feel sorry for em, more and more people regarding NASA as one big joke. one program for the public, meanwhile a lot more going on for many years.

whatever. I say forgive and forget the whole thing and move on, they're never going to admit it, and we can't stay downtrodden forever. It's not the 50's and 60's anymore.

www.geschichteinchronologie.ch...

Well the story has been picked up by FNC and a few other places as well, all using the OP source as their source....

Missing Moon-Landing Videotapes May Have Been Found

Just in time for the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, NASA may have found the long-lost original Apollo 11 videotapes.

If true, as Britain's Sunday Express reports, the high-quality tapes may give us a whole new view of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's lunar strolls.

Back on July 20, 1969, the raw video feed from the moon was beamed to the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in southeastern Australia, and then compressed and sent to Mission Control in Houston.

Fox news says their requests to NASA for comment were not immediately returned.

Funny how they are saying Just in time for the celebration

[edit on 6/30/2009 by JacKatMtn]

reply to post by bakedbean


bean, bean, bean....

You really should get out more!

the "guy" in "your" "link" doesn't "seem" to have much "credibility" since 'He" is forever "using" quotes to "excess"!!!

"He" fails "miserably"!!! ::

First time I have seen it reported on TV...

Just happened on FNC of course ( I think they have been picking up stories from ATS, it's funny how alot of the topical threads breaking here find their way on the air, usually 3 days later... of course it's speculation on my part )

The short segment basicly fell in line with the OP source article and if the clip shows up on the website, I will post the link here

How do tapes of Man's supposed greatest achievement just get lost in the shuffle? That is just stupid. I don't buy this BS at all.

reply to post by Roid_Rage27

How do tapes of Man's supposed greatest achievement just get lost...

Trying to ignore the implied sneer by use of the the word 'supposed'....

It was 1969! There was a focus on upcoming missions. This was a different era, and mindset than we see today...we are so spoiled.

Do you realize there was actually a time when you'd go to see a motion picture in an actual theater, and you'd not be able to see it again for years, unless it was resurrected in some second-rate cinema house? And that was only for films considered 'artsy' or 'significant'. I mean, it wasn't on HBO three weeks after leaving the theaters, and certainly wasn't in the shops on tape! THERE actually was a time when there were only three channels on the TV, for the majority of people...(in America)...unless you lived in a big city. In LA back then we had about seven VHF, plus one or two PBS stations on UHF!

Ahhhh....nostalgia!

Ed: Ooops...fat fingers (and misplaced tags!)

[edit on 6/30/0909 by weedwhacker]

Setting aside every and all conspiracy theories and just taking things at face value only (which I don't, by the way, but for the sake of the point); how can an agency like NASA, which was once considered to be the peak of human possibility and achievement, be so rife with disorganization, neglect, and simple ignorance? And to publicly admit to it with seemingly no shame?

Since the Challenger disaster, when their bubble of near-infallability was finally burst in the public's eye, we've seen them admit to throwing out and/or destroying nearly every record, file, film, blueprint, and piece of data they've gathered over the decades. They've admitted that they can't recreate the moon landing and that they've lost endless reels of data on the moon and other planetary probes. They've managed to fling Voyager out into the farthest reaches of our solar system, yet in recent years they're 50/50 with Mars missions, and really don't do anything in "outer space" anymore, concentrating all of their missions on near-Earth obit time wasters like the International Space Station and the limping, patched together Hubble.

NASA scientists and engineers have become garbage pickers who have to pick through aerospace trash heaps to try and find materials to get back to the moon. They comb storage units, landfills, and abandoned warehouses to try and track down discarded items that should be, at the very least, retained forever (I mean, isn't that what science is... the accumulation of data in order to prove/disprove theories and ideas?) and at the very most, national treasures.

The NASA edict against data destruction was issued after the space agency's 2006 admission that it couldn't locate the original tapes of the Apollo 11 live slow-scan TV broadcast from the moon.

www.computerworld.com...

The fact that NASA even needs to pass an edict (let alone in 2006, when the damage had already been done) is simply mind-boggling. If anyone argues against NASA being a giant drain on funds and resources, it is evidence like this that proves how sorry an organization they are.

Now, turning the conspiracy knob back to the 'ON' position for just a moment... admitting publicly to being a bunch of buffoons definitely creates the image of a bunch of harmless eggheads in the mind of the general public, leading them away from thinking much more sinister and secretive things about them. Kind of reminds me how the CIA was happy to tell the public about all of their foolish (and failed) attempts to kill Castro.

reply to post by larphillips


lar, with your conspiracy switch in the Oh-Eff-Eff position ('OFF') you nailed it, I think.

NASA is bloated, and lumbering. I think there was such a chest full of pride post Apollo that Hell just kept getting more and more hand baskets delivered.

Some will say that most of NASA is boilerplate cover for DoD stuff, etc (which I won't dispute, because I have no knowledge either way). But, whether cover or not, it can be shown that management has failed, at least in the Public side, big time.

Don't know if this analogy works, but look at IBM. A corporation, top of its game in a field where it was the 800-pound gorilla...and got mismanaged to death, basically. I see a parallel.

Within any large Corporation there is a cadre of genius, who produce the most amazing results...sometimes only to be ignored. Apollo (and Mercury and Gemini, as a package) signified the pinnacle of NASA, a crowning achievement, and subsequent public disinterest, Congressional underfunding, and distractions (VietNam) were demoralizing, methinks.

NASA having lost the technology to make it back to the Moon, even after the light-years of technological advancements we have made in the 4+ Decades since then, I think is the primary reason why I am skeptical of a Lunar Landing to begin with. Losing the actual footage for 4+ decades as well, only reinforces that doubt.

That said, as has been pointed out, the Space Race era was a different time. Every goal that was made was promptly achieved, and it was probably assumed by NASA that these giant leaps in Space Exploration were going to continue at an accelerated rate. The thought that this data would be needed after the next successful mission probably never crossed anyone's mind. The thought that funding would be increasingly restricted, or that we would go down a technological one-way avenue with the Shuttle program that was nothing more than a cosmic cul-de-sac are two important things that were never considered by NASA either.

You see this happen in the Military a lot as well. The Military will spend billions on a Top Secret project that is on a Need to Know Basis. Once the funding dries up, the project gets abandoned and "lost". Decades later, someone digs it up and even the current Military doesn't believe it because there is no one alive, on staff at the DoD who had the proper Security Clearance back then to know of it's existence. Happens all the time as any one who peruses the DoD Declassified Archives is most aware of.

I do agree with there needing to be data retention regulations, especially in a field as important as Space Exploration. This data should be retained in the public trust, and be stored indefinitely, being made accessible to interested parties, for the betterment of all, and the futher advancement of Space Exploration. Otherwise, all our Tax Dollars that go to NASA are nothing more than paying to keep a few bright minds entertained as they play with their toys for no other reason than petty amusement.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for those bright minds at NASA, and always dreamed of becoming one of them (but I decided Ancient History and Archaeology was more important for me to pursue instead). However, I just think that they need to be more accountable not only to the American People and future generations, but their own future successors at NASA, so that they won't have to reinvent the wheel each and every generation that passes there.

reply to post by larphillips


Man you nailed it Lar.

I was going to simply add one item to your list of ineptitudes with the missing Moon Rocks, then through a little digging (unintended pun) recalled they were "stolen." (Quotes OK WW?)

www.collectspace.com...

Regards...KK


[edit on 30-6-2009 by kinda kurious]

Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by Roid_Rage27

 

How do tapes of Man's supposed greatest achievement just get lost...

Trying to ignore the implied sneer by use of the the word 'supposed'....(SNIP)......Ahhhh....nostalgia!

Ed: Ooops...fat fingers (and misplaced tags!)

[edit on 6/30/0909 by weedwhacker]

Hey WW, how did you go back in time to 909 AD to make your edit?
Have you finally concocted that Time Travel brew you been bragging about?

Originally posted by the_don_killuminati
No one discovered a damn thing. The public is constantly tested for strength of belief in certain myths. This monitoring is routine. When belief in a certain myth, i.e. Apollo moon landings, need reinforcement, articles such as this appear in the main stream media. The surfacing of such an article signifies that the myth needed reinforcement. Everybody needs to start paying attention to these devices of public control. The world government is like a dog that only knows so many tricks. When the dog runs out of tricks he will repeat the tricks he's already performed. Likewise, the world government keeps repeating the same bunch of tricks ad nauseum.

I agree with you on this.

I recall when the Royal Family, especially Prince Phillip was getting major stick from Al Fayed and David Icke they did a little informal TV interview and chat with him by a black newspresenter (forget his name). All light-hearted and easygoing stuff btw.
But I couldn't help but wonder about it being a PRS to the negative press he'd been getting.

Originally posted by Roid_Rage27
How do tapes of Man's supposed greatest achievement just get lost in the shuffle? That is just stupid. I don't buy this BS at all.

Even ignoring the "supposed", I never considered the Moon landing Man's greatest achievement.

It was a show of how many, many people can work on a very large team to achieve something very difficult, but to me the greatest achievements are the ones that change for the better the life of all human beings, and although the data collected was important, common people's life didn't got better because of that.

Sorry for the rant, everybody.

Originally posted by fraterormus
That said, as has been pointed out, the Space Race era was a different time. Every goal that was made was promptly achieved, and it was probably assumed by NASA that these giant leaps in Space Exploration were going to continue at an accelerated rate.

Not only that, I think most people would find it to dangerous or not eco-friendly enough if the Apollo mission was reproduced today.

Today's people are not expecting sacrifices from nobody because they are not thinking of doing them themselves, or they consider a sacrifice not having coffee after lunch, sacrificing their life in a tin can to the Moon would be unthinkable.

(Obviously I am talking about most people, not all people are like that, by the way people faced life in the 60s is not the same anymore, many things changed)