posted 07-13-2009 05:38 PM               

With the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 first manned moon landing rapidly approaching, all of us "Space Cover of the Week(ers)" are going to be showing you Apollo 11 covers until the end of July.

Space Cover #013, Apollo 11 TV Brought to Earth

The largest television audience in history watched Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon. Surprisingly, the best quality TV was never seen outside the tracking stations themselves - EVER! The pictures seen by the world were degraded by the time they reached Houston for distribution to the international TV networks. The highest quality TV was recorded on telemetry tapes at the three tracking stations which received the signal - Goldstone in California and Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes in Australia.

Until Neil was on the footpad, MSC Houston relayed Goldstone's video to the TV networks. While Goldstone was receiving an excellent picture, equipment problems meant that only a very dark picture reached the MSC. All that could be seen of Neil was the silhouette of his legs. When the switch to Honeysuckle Creek's picture was made, Neil could be seen, waiting to step onto the surface. And then the step...

The telemetry tapes from the tracking sites have never been replayed, and now cannot be located, but if they could be found and digitally processed, they could produce stunningly clear TV - much better than was seen at the MSC Houston or on the worldwide TV broadcast.

The original tapes may be stored - and forgotten about - at a NASA facility somewhere. There is a team of people that have been looking for these tapes for several years without success but someday they may just turn up...

The covers above are from the Parkes, Goldstone and Honeysuckle Creek tracking sites.