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Show Thursday, February 1, HERALD DAILY 2007 A7 NASA stumped in search for videos of 1969 moonwalk Marc Kaufman THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON As Neil Armstrong prepared to take his "one small step" onto the moon in Jury 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. NASA engineers who did view them knew what the public was missing, but the relatively poor picture quality of the broadcast images never became an issue because the landing was such a triumph. The tale of the missing Apollo II tapes is made all the more awkward because televised images of subsequent Apoflo missions were greatly improved. It was only for Apollo 11 that an unusually configured video feed was used. It was transmitted from the ' moon to ground sites in Australia and the Mojave Desert in California, where technicians reformatted the video for broadcast and transmitted e over analog lines to Houston. A lot of video qual ity was lost during that process, turning clear, bright images into gray blobs and oddly what Lebar moving shapes now calls a "bastardized" version of the actual footage. The missing tapes are now something of an embarrassment to NASA, which last August put Dolly Perkins, the deputy director of Goddard Space Flight Center in Green-bel- t, Md., in charge of the search She is overseeing the hunt for the tapes and, perhaps more important right now, for memos and directives that might yield clues to their fate. Goddard is where most Apollo data had been processed. As far as we know, all the . tapes were handled properly from a mission perspective," she said. "Typically, when we record at a ground site, we don't preserve data tapes. The scientific investigators will get what they need and then erase. MELINA MARAWashington Post But here there is some indicaDetermined sleuths Richard Nafzger and Stanley Lebar once tion that we didn't destroy the tapes but stored them for some thought they were close to finding the lost Apollo tapes of the 1969 moonwalk. period of time." 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Home BaSiC Edition What started as an infor-"mHP Pavilion Notebook Computer iHsfiiiilll search became an official Dual Core Processor with Intel Pentium iMjWjWf.lj hunt through archives, record immmUlm9 Intel Pentium processor T2060 centers and storage rooms 80GB hard drive 512MB DDR2 memory " " r " H'i-'- S CDs via the double layer drive Reads writes DVDs " ' -- throughout NASA facilities. Microsoft Windows Vista" Home Basic Edition months ILyJl later, disapMany Integrated 802.1 Ibg wireless LAN i. pointed officials now report Model DV6205US 767457 , that the trail they followed has gone cold. Although the search continues, they acknowledge that the videos may be lost forever. "When we sent our camera up on the mission, everything about it was a first and a WIOfcSCRtffly big unknown," said Richard W&tofUil-S8,98""" " with Nafzger, an engineer NASA who was involved in the original transmission of the Apollo 11 images to Earth and is now part of the search to rr? find them. "Would the camera fcr mm II work? Would we get TV of Immmt td.itni . I V II Notebook Presario M'MMTiFJWrw Compaq that first step? We just didn't Intel Core" 2 Duo features high Processor with Intel Pentium know what to expect. pertormance power with with Vista" Home Premium Edition "In the same way, we're doHome Premium Edition Intel Pentium Processor T2060 Vista Centrino. ing a kind of massive tape and 80GB hard drive 1024MB memory Toshiba Satellite Notebook Computer Duo W document search that's never drivel 115 120GB hard drive add Reads and writes DVDs and CDs via double layer with Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology 12 Cell Battery add 150 High gloss imprint finish with built in microphone been done before," Nafzger Intel Core" 2 Duo Processor T5200 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Year Accidental said in a recent interview. "We 1024MB DDR2 memory 160GB hard drive Protection Plan add $100 Integrated 802.1 1abg wireless LAN Reads and writes DVDs & CDs via the Double Layer drive tomorthe might discover tapes 55567891 CONFIGURATION Model TOSHIBA Microsoft ' Windows Vista" Home Premium Edition tmes S hantng row, or we might reach a point Integrated 802.1 labg wireless Price In computer configuration snown. Orders lor unrlgind computers must be placed where we have to say we can't available store. at a real 323769 through shilling product Model go any further. Right now, I would have to tell you their fate is pretty much a mystery." Stanley Lebar, who had been in charge of developing the lunar camera, is also involved in the search. He can recite all the understandable reasons why he and his colleagues did not give the tapes the attention they deserved back in 1969 they were cumbersome, a highly specialized format that appeared to have limited value in the age but he nonetheless is kicking himself now for not getting a copy for safekeeping. "We all understood the importance of this event to history, to posterity, and so we all should have made sure those tapes were safe and secure," said Lebar, 81. "I ask myself today, 'Why the heck didn't you think that way back then?" The answer is that I just assumed that NASA was going to do it. But, unfortunately, that was a bad assumption." I ' -- VaJg mi i Iv "K I '"ffr"; (llUeij mA H '4 ' A " '115.4" Core" Intel 2 Duo Dual-Co- L - m. m f"(atfiwav 847502 . 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