NASA has come out and said that the original recordings of July 20, 1969 were not simply lost, they were degaussed – magnetically wiped clean – and reused along with 200,000 other tapes used during the Apollo missions in order to save money. But fear not, the newly restored copies of the original broadcast “look even better.” Anyone besides me see what’s wrong with that picture?
But perhaps it was an accident. It is a nice, simple – financially feasible – explanation. But consider this: NASA – a highly funded government agency – should have had no problem properly marking, and securing for safekeeping, the very highlight of the organization’s history – the historical footage of man’s first steps on the moon.
It’s incredibly unlikely that something would have happened to those tapes – unless, of course, NASA wanted it to.
The Flashlight 