posted August 15, 2006 07:52 AM               

quote:

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Wood hasn't been happy of late with some reports saying that they are looking for "missing Apollo videotapes" — as well as tabloid claims that NASA had somehow bungled a task.

"That's the furthest thing from the truth," Wood told SPACE.com. "There are no lost Apollo video tapes," he emphasized.

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posted August 15, 2006 07:56 AM               

To be clear, these are telemetry tapes, not videotapes, and the slow-scan TV could be extracted from the telemetry tapes and since this would be prior to processing would be better than existing material. It would still have to be converted to regular television, but can be done without the issues that diminished the picture in July 1969.

Specifically the trail ends when they were transferred from NARA back to NASA Goddard in 1984.

posted August 15, 2006 07:58 AM            

Do a search on Google News to find the stories.

posted August 15, 2006 08:01 AM               

Here's the URL http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/index1.html

Scroll to bottom of menu for DVD's

posted August 15, 2006 10:37 AM               

Mark Gray (Spacecraft Films), if you're reading this... you have to be both elated and a little frustrated at the same time to see the nearly tabloid style attention this story is suddenly receiving!

And wouldn't it be incredibly cool if we DO actually locate those tapes? That would be huge.

Carl Johnson

posted August 15, 2006 11:42 AM               

Unfortunately an unwanted by-product is that the moon-hoax crowd are crying foul despite the fact that all video is currenty available, albeit in 1969 scan converted quality. Curiously they believe the tapes will reveal HDTV quality when the camera was limited to 320 lines of resolution.

What the tapes will provide is a pre-scan converted image that is without satellite, kinescope and optical conversion noise.

posted August 15, 2006 02:18 PM               

I hope this doesn't come off as a rant, but here you are.

If it weren't for Stan and Bill and some others who thought about the fact that the slow-scan TV might be retrieved from the telemetry tapes nobody would have thought anything of the Apollo 11 video. As it is they've been after these particular tapes now for several years, and THAT is the real story. These guys have been working and working to try and improve the record, and all the media can get out of it is to take the low road and try and make NASA look stupid. I'll always be baffled by a media that thinks the government should run everything and then rejoices in reporting government's shortcomings, all without checking any facts.

The facts remain that no videotapes are missing... that while the slow-scan video which could be retrived from the telemetry tapes would be of better quality than the converted footage now available, one still couldn't characterize it as "high-quality" video. The resolution limitations will still be there.

Yet because of the sensationalism that has become rampant through the media - and not just the tabloids, but all media - stories are all over the place this week about how "NASA has lost the Apollo 11 videotapes." Rubbish.

This kind of journalistic garbage doesn't do anything to get us back to the moon any sooner, that's for sure.

Personally I've tried to help the searchers wherever I can, though with their knowledge of the original systems and how the telemetry was stored that help has been miniscule. The only way I could really help was try to point out things I had seen or heard about at the archives, etc.

I hope they haven't been recycled, can be found, and can yield a clearer view of the Apollo 11 EVA. The Apollo 11 EVA material is some of the more frustrating that I've come across. But once again - whatever happens the real story here is the guys who have been working to make this happen. Good show. Let's hope the end result is positive.

posted August 15, 2006 10:59 PM               

quote:

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Update: Apollo 11 Tapes

NASA personnel continue to sift through 37-year-old records in their attempt to locate the magnetic tapes that recorded the original Apollo 11 video in 1969. The original tapes may be at the Goddard Space Flight Center, which requested their return from the National Archives in the 1970s, or at another location within the NASA archiving system. Despite the challenges of the search, NASA does not consider the tapes to be lost.

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posted August 21, 2006 12:54 PM               

The telemetry tapes contain the raw data as recorded at the tracking stations and each tape has 15 minutes running time.

cheerio
Dwight

posted August 21, 2006 04:06 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Dwight:
The TV downlink kinescopes are all intact, and there is nothing on the missing tapes which hasnt been seen before.

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posted January 31, 2007 10:08 AM               

quote:

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As Neil Armstrong prepared to take his "one small step" onto the moon in July 1969, a specially hardened video camera tucked into the lander's door clicked on to capture that first human contact with the lunar surface. The ghostly images of the astronaut's boot touching the soil record what may be the most iconic moment in NASA history, and a major milestone for mankind.

Millions of television viewers around the world saw those fuzzy, moving images and were amazed, even mesmerized. What they didn't know was that the Apollo 11 camera had actually sent back video far crisper and more dramatic -- spectacular images that, remarkably, only a handful of people have ever seen.

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posted January 31, 2007 10:08 AM               

But this Washington Post article is by far the most accurate description I've seen as to the nature of the tapes and the participants in the search. Nicely done on this story (finally!).

Mark

posted February 05, 2007 07:55 AM               

Colin (the webmaster there) is part of the team doing the search, and has uncovered many a useful bit of information regarding TV footage of Apollo 11. (The most intriguing was Ed von Renouard's 8mm home movie footage off the SSTV monitor at Honesuckle Creek tracking station).

posted February 05, 2007 07:56 AM               

Does it show the overboard dump of the PLSSs following the moonwalk ? I saw it recently on Australian TV and the film clarity was (to say the least) surprising.

posted February 08, 2007 12:18 PM               

the only place you can see the PLSS is via honeysuckle website. It's on the DVD with the Net2 audio on it. The NASA kinescope stops before this.