Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Why am I not surprised?

Apparently NASA took the original Apollo 11 video footage and recorded a bunch of satellite telemetry and old episodes of Mork & Mindy right over it.

I'd like to be surprised, but then I remember that NASA is, when all is said and done, run by the government. And besides, who needs old videotapes when your new mission apparently revolves around playing touchy-feely science diplomat?

Expect a spike in Capricorn One DVD sales at Amazon.

9 comments:

Scott said...

This is just another clue that the people running NASA are Eff'ed up to the Max. In the past I was one of the most enthusiastic NASA supporters that you would ever see. I even went to the 20th anniversary of Explorer 1 in Huntsville, when I was a young 19 year old L-5 member. I even spoke to some of those old German Rocket Scientists, who I thought were the greatest. But, it is time to grow up and KILL NASA. I mean pull the plug and disconnect the O2. I know I seem a little P'ssed off, but that is what 51 years of having all of your dreams killed by Leftist Pusillanimous Twits does to you.

And my wife wonders why I like my Grumpy T-shirts so much. I need to find one where Grumpy is armed.

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

Even worse, I remember reading somewhere that those original tapes were close to HD quality. The poor quality images we've seen for years was because of the format conversion they had to do for broadcast TV at the time.

Honestly, I'm surprised the tapes (or direct copies, at least) didn't end up running a display in the Smithsonian on constant replay. That would have been the most appropriate thing to do with them.

TJP said...

Is there some reason they had that laying around after the mission....instead of, you know, in the Library of Congress or something?

Scott said...

Oversights are common in any organization. They may not consider this oversight a mistake because no one died. It is more likely than not that most oversights occur because the person in charge has their mind focused on something other than how the immediate task might be the conflict with the Primary Responsibility, of course now we have some Goofball trying to change the Primary Responsibility.

Pointman said...

Probably did it intentionally to bury the confusion that the dust on the moon wasn't feet thick as it was suppose to be. Rather than deal with revising theories and offering a simple mea culpa they got rid of the evidence of the miscalculation. Seems things haven't changed much since then.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Sigh! My Federal Tax Dollars at work. Wonder how that Muslim Outreach program is going to work? " No Iran, you must use THESE satellite images if you plan on hitting Tel Aviv. They're the best, 'cause they are fresh from NASA".

Tam said...

Pointman,

Doubtful.

There's still plenty of Apollo footage around, we're just discussing a particular set of tapes from one moon mission out of many. They just happen to be a set of tapes with particular historical significance.

Joe in PNG said...

If memory serves,
it was not that uncommon for video tapes to be erased and reused. That was back in the day when they were rare and expensive- you could't just hit Wal-mart and pick up a bulk pack.

Plus, hey, this Apollo thing is old news- we need some shelf room for this cool new "Space Shuttle" project we're getting together...

Matt G said...

Joe hit the nail on the head. Things were moving FAST, back then. For 7 years, they had been in Get'ErDone mode, without too much concern for documentation. They just forgot to shift gears when they got it done.

Who knew that the Apollo program would end in 1975, with the sixth and final lunar landing for at least four decades in 1972?!?

Pointman, you're putting a conspiracy where simple stupid human error and poor oversight is far more likely.