NASA marks Apollo 11 anniversary with new lunar images

July 16, 3:35 PMDC Space News ExaminerKeith Stein

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Photo: NASA

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has sent back its first images of the Apollo lunar landing sites used in the 60s and 70s. The agency will release the images on Friday and hold a teleconference to discuss the photos and future plans for the LRO mission.

In related news, the space agency also released newly restored video from the July 20, 1969, live television broadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The release commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first mission to land astronauts on the moon.

The initial video release, part of a larger Apollo 11 moonwalk restoration project, features 15 key moments from the historic lunar excursion of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

"The restoration is ongoing and may produce even better video," said Richard Nafzger, an engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who oversaw television processing at the ground tracking sites during Apollo 11. "The restoration project is scheduled to be completed in September and will provide the public, future historians, and the National Archives with the highest quality video of this historic event."

On July 20, 1969, as Armstrong made the short step off the ladder of the Lunar Excursion Module onto the powdery lunar surface, a global community of hundreds of millions of people witnessed one of humankind's most remarkable achievements live on television.

The black and white images of Armstrong and Aldrin bouncing around the moon were provided by a single small video camera aboard the lunar module.

A copy of the newly restored scenes from the Apollo 11 restoration effort can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/apollo11.html