From the AP wire: NASA lost moon footage, but Hollywood restores it “WASHINGTON — NASA could put a man on the moon but didn’t have the sense to keep the original video of the live TV transmission. In an embarrassing acknowledgment, the space agency said Thursday that it must have erased the Apollo 11 moon footage years ago so that it could reuse the videotape…
Nafzger said a huge search that began three years ago for the old moon tapes led to the “inescapable conclusion” that 45 tapes of Apollo 11 video were erased and reused. His report on that will come out in a few weeks.
The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tape that each contained 15 minutes of video, along with other data from the moon. In the 1970s and ’80s, NASA had a shortage of the tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them…
Nafzger, who was in charge of the live TV recordings back in the Apollo years, said they were mostly thought of as data tapes. It wasn’t his job to preserve history, he said, just to make sure the footage worked. In retrospect, he said he wished NASA hadn’t reused the tapes…
“It’s surprising to me that NASA didn’t have the common sense to save perhaps the most important historical footage of the 20th century,” said Rice University historian and author Douglas Brinkley. He noted that NASA saved all sorts of data and artifacts from Apollo 11, and it is “mind-boggling that the tapes just disappeared.”…
Smithsonian Institution space curator Roger Launius, a former NASA chief historian, said the loss of the original video “doesn’t surprise me that much.”
“It was a mistake, no doubt about that,” Launius said. “This is a problem inside the entire federal government. … They don’t think that preservation is all that important.”
To quote Homer Simpson - “yummy yummy yummy I’ve got love in my tummy”!
There’s that new commercial that utilizes footage of JFK saying “aahnd that’s why we must go to the moon, and the othah thing!”
I think the embedding of Simpsonology is so thoroughly complete at this point that there’s no turning back. Every time that ad shows up on TV, Scott or I say “Vote Quimby!”
Submitted by wizzybit on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 6:59am.
For example, believing that you saw Buzz Aldrin take a bit of the moon, and other mis-remembrances. Oh well. Just goes to show you how much mush is memory.
Submitted by wizzybit on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 10:39am.
I just wanted to test that I ban post to Leppotone FROMMYPHONE. Which is why I must now find a job so I can keep my phone. Is the nuclear plant hiring?
NASA = Not Always Sharp Archivists
NASA lost moon footage, but Hollywood restores it
“WASHINGTON — NASA could put a man on the moon but didn’t have the sense to keep the original video of the live TV transmission.
In an embarrassing acknowledgment, the space agency said Thursday that it must have erased the Apollo 11 moon footage years ago so that it could reuse the videotape…
Nafzger said a huge search that began three years ago for the old moon tapes led to the “inescapable conclusion” that 45 tapes of Apollo 11 video were erased and reused. His report on that will come out in a few weeks.
The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tape that each contained 15 minutes of video, along with other data from the moon. In the 1970s and ’80s, NASA had a shortage of the tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them…
Nafzger, who was in charge of the live TV recordings back in the Apollo years, said they were mostly thought of as data tapes. It wasn’t his job to preserve history, he said, just to make sure the footage worked. In retrospect, he said he wished NASA hadn’t reused the tapes…
“It’s surprising to me that NASA didn’t have the common sense to save perhaps the most important historical footage of the 20th century,” said Rice University historian and author Douglas Brinkley. He noted that NASA saved all sorts of data and artifacts from Apollo 11, and it is “mind-boggling that the tapes just disappeared.”…
Smithsonian Institution space curator Roger Launius, a former NASA chief historian, said the loss of the original video “doesn’t surprise me that much.”
“It was a mistake, no doubt about that,” Launius said. “This is a problem inside the entire federal government. … They don’t think that preservation is all that important.”
To quote Homer Simpson - “yummy yummy yummy I’ve got love in my tummy”!
Does anybody else have this problem?/
I think the embedding of Simpsonology is so thoroughly complete at this point that there’s no turning back. Every time that ad shows up on TV, Scott or I say “Vote Quimby!”
Yes, and many other Simpsons / Onion related humor issues.
For example, believing that you saw Buzz Aldrin take a bit of the moon, and other mis-remembrances. Oh well. Just goes to show you how much mush is memory.
Unemployed mu-mu