The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported that they have recovered footage of the July 1969 live broadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk after being lost for nearly 40 years.

At 11am EDT on Thursday, July 16, 2009 NASA will hold a press conference and release the recently found 40 year old television broadcast of that historic moonwalk.  "The release will feature 15 key moments from Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s historic moonwalk using what is believed to be the best available broadcast-format copies of the lunar excursion, some of which had been locked away for nearly 40 years.”

When NASA put a man on the moon it was a triumph of achievement for the United States as it showed its technical capabilities and its dedication to space exploration. NASA spent years planning and developing specialized equipment for the mission. One such piece of equipment was a high resolution video camera that would send back images to Earth. 

Due to the lack of technology at the time, the video feed from the moon actually had to be compressed and scaled down to work on televisions across the world. After the initial recording of the high resolution video feed the film went missing after its shipment back to the US. The only surviving footage was a 16mm film that was shot at black and white TV which gives us the only surviving recorded copy until today.

The initial video released Thursday is part of a comprehensive Apollo 11 moonwalk restoration project expected to be completed by the fall.

The Newseum is located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s Internet homepage.

Participants in the briefing will be:
– Richard Nafzger, team lead and Goddard engineer
– Stan Lebar, former Westinghouse Electric program manager
– Mike Inchalik, president of Lowry Digital, Burbank, Calif.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedule information and streaming video, visit:

nasa.gov/tv (Click Here)