Washington Post: The Saga Of the Lost Space – Tapes
NASA Is Stumped in Search For Videos of 1969 Moonwalk.

“As Neil Armstrong prepared to take his “one small step” onto the moon in July 1969, a specially hardened video camera tucked into the lander’s door clicked on to capture that first human contact with the lunar surface. […] Millions of television viewers around the world saw those fuzzy, moving images and were amazed, even mesmerized. What they didn’t know was that the Apollo 11 camera had actually sent back video far crisper and more dramatic — spectacular images that, remarkably, only a handful of people have ever seen. […]

The original, high-quality lunar tapes were soon stored and forgotten. Only in recent years was the agency reminded of what it once had — clean and crisp first-man-on-the-moon video images that could be especially valuable now that NASA is planning a return trip. About 36 years after the tapes went into storage, NASA was suddenly eager to have them. There was just one problem: The tapes were nowhere to be found.”

I think it would be really exciting if they manage to find the tapes after all, though the chances seem to be slim. I’d certainly like to watch the footage.

Link via Garret.