(CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images), similar to the demise of the Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the USA was taking the conclusive steps of the Space Race, already had a presidential address drafted for such a purpose, On July 16, 1969,the Saturn V rocket responsible for propelling Apollo 11 to the Moon successfully launched from Cape Kennedy. Notice that the top one is almost unchanged while the bottom one is shattering into pieces. "There was no video that came down slow scan that was not converted live, fed live, to Houston and fed live to the world," NASA engineer Dick Nafzger, who led the search for the footage, said at a news briefing about the lost tapes in 2009. In July of 1969 a ham radio operator and amateur radio-astronomer by the name of Larry Baysinger, W4EJA, accomplished an amazing feat. But Armstrong and Aldrin made it to the surface safely, as we all know, and the rest is history. This story has been corrected to reflect that. (SSPL/Getty Images), Both the Command Module and the Service Module. President Richard Nixon awarded the three men the Presidential Medal of Freedom the highest civilian award in the US. 2I was intrigued due to my interest in astronomys history (this being an interesting story of radio astronomy). Heres how it works. The world heard communications between the crew and Mission Control live as they happened. The Holy Lance: 8 facts about the spear that killed Jesus, The Reluctant King: The life of King George VI, The true story of Anne Frank and her diary, 10 free episodes you can watch on History PLAY in January 2023. Mans search will not be denied. [9], The RCA scan converter operated on an optical conversion principle. As. NASA releases 19,000 hours of audio from historic Apollo 11 mission The tapes capture the dramatic moments just before the moon landing, but also some lighthearted episodes. Lowry Digital completed the full moonwalk restoration project in late 2009. Lunar Eavesdropping quietly sat in the rolls of microfilmed Courier-Journal editions in the reference sections of (mostly Kentucky) libraries, awaiting rediscovery. The astronauts apparently talked about seeing extraterrestrial objects on the Moon. //-->