Remembering the Moon Walk

Posted Sunday, July 19, 2009, at 8:08 AM

A recent NASA revelation will undoubtedly refuel an old conspiracy theory which has been out there for 40 years - ever since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969.

It seems that NASA announced on Thursday (July 16) that the original recordings of the moon walk were erased and used over, in order to save money.

So much for historical preservation. Can you imagine some NASA employee being so short-sighted as to think that these recordings weren't an important part of history? When an effort to "save money" becomes all-important, we can see the results.

However, there is a broader issue here. There are groups out there in our country who swear that the entire moon walk was nothing more than a Hollywood-produced conspiracy to dupe the American people into believing that the U.S. had put a man on the moon.

I'm not sure if this conspiracy theory is comparable to the idea that the Holocaust never happened, but there are skeptics in both areas.

However, for non-conspiracy enthusiasts, there is good news. Good copies of the moon walk have been found in the archives of CBS and some kinescopes in the film vaults at Johnson Space Center.

These old recordings are being cleaned up, ironically, by a Burbank, California company called Lowry Digital. The fact that this is a Hollywood-based company will undoubtedly add fuel to the conspiracy fire.

There is more good news: There may well be unofficial copies of the original broadcast out there somewhere that were taken from a NASA video switching center in Sydney, Australia. Someone else in Sydney may also have taken recordings of the Apollo 11 moon walk.

There are cleaned up photos coming out, so watch for them.

I think it's exciting that such an amazing event happened 40 years ago. My husband and I had just traveled the Alaska highway and were adjusting to our new lives in Fairbanks. It was such a magic time in my life that I hardly had time to look up at the moon.

So much has happened since that innocent time. My husband is a memory, my three children are grown with children of their own, much water has gone under the bridge of life. It all seems like a dream. I look at those old images from the moon and marvel at it all.

From the remote hills of Tillman, Missouri, where the trees obscure the moon, this is your rural reporter Madeline, remembering how it was in that time of the moon walk forty years ago...

Comments
Showing comments in chronological order
[Show most recent comments first]

That was a great time to be living, imagine traveling to the moon when most of us had just gazed at the moon wondering if the folks up there did just have green cheese for food. We were living in Memphis in July 1969 preparing for a move to Dexter in August.

I had the privilege of working one weekend in Huntsville during one of the moon orbits before Neal and Buzz took their flight. A stubborn IBM Computer was acting up and I was dispatched to do the repair. What an exciting time.

-- Posted by Dexterite1 on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 10:33 AM

We took a picture of the television that showed the moonwalk. I still have it. It's a treasure.

-- Posted by geezerette on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 11:48 AM

We took a picture of the television, too, Geezerette! Still have it. Our TV was a console with a rounded screen.

My dad called us into the knotty pine den, told us to sit down, and said, (in his Walter Cronkite voice) "Folks, this is history."

-- Posted by lovebooks on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 12:14 PM

I can't believe G W Bush lost the copy of the backup tape.

-- Posted by shannonhoon on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 1:11 PM

Ignore him.

-- Posted by goat lady on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 1:16 PM

First, I must confess that I expected to read another Michael Jackson account about moon walking. He was cute the first time he did that, but not nearly so important as Armstrong and Aldrin's moon walk. I do remember the TV report w/ Walter Cronkite. Amazing to have seen it televised "first hand". I do remember that many folks, especially Russians, thought it was a film prank.

I can see the launches from Cape Canaveral from my front yard now--another almost unbelievable feat. If it is clear, we have a great view of that power--about two hundred miles away. We hear the sound barrier break when landing, about ten minutes before it shows on TV.

-- Posted by GONENOW on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 2:26 PM

Madeline DeJournett's response:

One blog about Michael Jackson is more than enough, gonenow! Talk about media saturation!

How funny that Ms. Madeline should mention the conspiracy theorists. Once I had a fellow try to convince me that it had all taken place in a movie studio. His reason was that "do you know that there are times when the moon is not even in the SKY?". There's just no arguing with logic like that.

-- Posted by Ducky on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 8:37 PM

I talked several times with a Hollywood cameraman who said the moon walk film was so unsophisticated it could easily have been shot on a soundstage. Whether the moon walk was live or Memorex is irrelevant for the people who are willing to accept on blind faith that it was real.

-- Posted by FJGuy on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 12:33 AM

I accept on blind faith that the moon is in the sky, whether or not I can see it from my front porch.

So what if the film COULD have been reproduced on a soundstage? It wasn't. Why would anyone think it was?

Do conspiracy theorists believe that we have astronauts in space at this very moment?

-- Posted by goat lady on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 5:46 AM

I told my husband about the conspiracy theorists and he said, "Do you think Russia would have let us get away with lying about our moon landing? Probably not." Does that sound correct?

-- Posted by lovebooks on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 10:37 AM

I agree. The Russians would have never have let us get away with lying about it.

I don't think modern conspiracy theorists (at least the intelligent ones) have a leg to stand on these days when anyone with a high enough power telescope and a steady enough hand can watch the international space station for themselves occasionally.

-- Posted by Ducky on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 1:15 PM

Oh, and that same person with the really high powered telescope can see the landing site on the moon. I have. Although I admit it wasn't a home telescope.

-- Posted by Ducky on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 1:19 PM

Oh, that is so COOL! I want to see it!!

-- Posted by goat lady on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 7:28 PM

There is no question the Moon was orbited, which was an amazing achievement for the time. But .... there is no "hard" evidence the moon landing occurred. The most authoritative evidence is Walter Cronkite said so. It was much easier, cheaper and safer for NASA to make a film, and in fact, nothing is any different than if the landing occurred. It is an example that sometimes there is no discernible difference between Memorex and reality.

-- Posted by FJGuy on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 2:34 PM

What sort of "evidence" do you want?

-- Posted by goat lady on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 8:49 PM

I believe there is a heaven and I believe man walked on the moon. Faith!

-- Posted by I.B. Le Truth on Wed, Jul 22, 2009, at 11:33 PM

Off the wall

Madeline DeJournett

- Recent posts
- Archives
- Blog RSS feed

- Comments RSS feed

- Login

Madeline DeJournett is the Advance writer for the North Stoddard Countian. A retired high school English/history teacher, she spent 32 years teaching in 5 schools in Missouri and Alaska. These days, she lives quietly with a menagerie of wild and domestic animals on 52 secluded acres in the remote Tillman hills south of Advance. She can be contacted at advancensc@sbcglobal.net or by phone at 573-722-5322.

Hot topics

My coffee dilemma
(1 ~ 6:32 PM, May 16)

Missouri flowers or weeds?
(7 ~ 8:09 PM, Apr 29)

Where in the world is Chechnya??
(0 ~ 7:15 AM, Apr 25)

Historical society travels old Bloomfield Road
(2 ~ 6:14 AM, Apr 21)

"Jungle" book review
(1 ~ 10:00 PM, Apr 16)

Home