Classic moon mission footage restored (Video)

by Stevie Smith - Jul 17 2009, 15:00

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of mankind’s first lunar expedition, NASA has this week released specially restored footage of the iconic Apollo 11 mission that successfully transported astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin onto the moon’s surface.

According to NASA, much of the original black and white film footage showcasing the historic lunar landing and the astronaut’s subsequent exploration had been erased and reused by the space administration, so it was forced to turn to television copies of the landing for its restoration attempt.

Armed with said video footage, NASA employed the skills of Hollywood film-restoration studio Lowry Digital to eliminate the generally poor quality of the imagery, removing its heavy grain and enhancing overall clarity to the point of clear reflections in the astronauts’ helmet visors.

Keen to avoid any accusations of tampering by conspiracy theorists that claim the lunar missions were hoaxed, NASA has insisted nothing new or freshly created has been added to the footage, and that restoration focused only on improving the film’s quality.

The final two-and-a-half hour version of the cleaned and re-mastered film is due to be released this coming September – after Lowry Digital completes its slog through some 12 hours of recordings.

Written into the annuls of history, and effectively ending the Cold War space race with Russia, NASA’s mighty Saturn 5 rocket – the most powerful ever built – launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16 of 1969, carrying the mission’s three-man crew on a journey into the unknown.

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