There are some things about elementary school that my own brain, likely protecting my psyche, won’t let me remember. But mankind’s first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969, is etched permanently in my mind.
Unfortunately, one can’t say the same for NASA’s data archive files.
It seems that at some point, likely during a budget crunch when no one would give the space agency extra moola, someone reused the data tape marking the historic steps by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that infamous day.
So with the 40th anniversary hitting this weekend (check out some of the events around the celebration as reported by Tonic.com), Hollywood and NASA video technology gurus stepped up to remix and recast the video history with a little help from files that were kept by other parties, such as news organizations and television studios.
According to the space agency’s release, a team of Apollo-era engineers who helped produce the 1969 live broadcast acquired the best of the broadcast-format video from a variety of sources for the restoration effort. This included a copy of a tape recorded at NASA’s Sydney, Australia, video switching center; original tapes from the CBS News Archive and kinescopes found in film vaults that had not been viewed for 36 years.
NASA contracted with Lowry Digital, which specializes in restoring aging Hollywood films and video, to take the highest quality video available from these recordings, select the best for digitization, and enhance the video.
Yesterday NASA released some of the newly restored video of the live television broadcast marking the first mission in which astronauts stepped onto the lunar surface. The release offers up 15 key moments from the historic lunar excursion of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin: the step off the ladder, the slow methodical movements of men in space suits, the planting of the flag.
“The restoration is ongoing and may produce even better video,” said Richard Nafzger in a NASA release. Nafzger is an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who oversaw television processing at the ground tracking sites during Apollo 11.
The agency said the video tape restoration project is scheduled to be completed in September. The data tape snafu is actually under federal investigation after a three-year search went nowhere.
So where were you? I was standing in my family’s living room, sent home from school like every other child that day, to watch the historic moment. My family crowded around the one TV set we owned while my mother made us a snack.
It was all we talked about while walking back to school, and during that school day. From that moment on, my glimpses to the moon (which resembled comic and actor Jackie Gleason to me thanks to the Honeymooners show popularity in my home) were not just passing looks anymore.