The NASA story keeps getting more convoluted. The tapes that had been supposedly taped over have, to a certain extent, been located just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.
On July 20, 1969, NASA put a man on the moon and captured it all on tape. In 1976, the space agency unknowingly sold those tapes of original footage from the Apollo 11 lunar mission to a lucky intern who held onto them for decades. He never even knew their contents.
Now, NASA’s blunder will belong to the highest bidder: the three surviving videotapes of the seminal moment in space exploration are up for auction–at a starting bid of $700,000. According to Sotheby’s, the tapes are worth up to $2 million. Bidding begins July 20, on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.
The two-and-a-half hours of footage provide the sharpest image of the history-making mission ever recorded, from Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon’s surface to an interplanetary conversation. The tapes were sold by accident to NASA intern Gary George in 1976, who purchased the set unknowingly among 65 boxes of videotapes at a government surplus auction for $217.77.
And two weeks after NASA reacquires the tapes, they’ll be “accidentally” taped over. Again.