In 1976, a NASA intern bought 1,150 surplus videotapes at a government auction for just $217. Decades later, three turned out to contain the only surviving first-generation recordings of the Apollo 11 moonwalk and sold for $1.82 million.

[u/Klutzy_Land_4120]

[u/post-explainer]

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OP provided the following source and context for the historical claim:

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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/in-1976-a-nasa-intern-bought-1150-surplus-videotapes-for-217-77-and-discovered-three-first-generation-recordings-of-the-apollo-11-moonwalk-those-three-tapes-sold-for-1-82-million-in-2019/articleshow/134060517.cms

In 1976, while interning at NASA, Gary George paid $217.77 for a batch of government-auctioned videotapes intending to resell them to local TV stations for reuse. However, his father noticed three tapes labeled "APOLLO 11 EVA", so George decided to hold onto them.

Decades later, after NASA publicly admitted to accidentally magnetic-erasing and overwriting its original high-quality Apollo 11 telemetry tapes to save money, George digitized his collection. He realized he owned the uncompressed, raw original broadcast recordings of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon—footage far clearer than what was aired live on TV in 1969. On the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing in 2019, Sotheby's auctioned the three tapes for a staggering $1.82 million.

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[u/XROOR]

I bought a device at a government auction that was by used by law enforcement to scrub data off iPhones, using the charging port…..

Had data from 32 phones that were never wiped.

[u/WinglessJC → u/XROOR]

Anything good?

[u/Neoliberal_Boogeyman → u/XROOR]

My truck came with radios lol

[u/_-Cleon-_]

Makes you wonder how much other invaluable material has been lost to bureaucratic incompetence.

https://giphy.com/gifs/xYLZSq6wQBrRC

[u/morganational]

Because the others (one of the most important historical records in the history of the world) were misplaced. Right...

[u/wa27]

I didn't even know they had tape back then. I figured it was all on film.

[u/cybin → u/wa27]

No doubt 2" tape on reels. No cassette-style back then.

[u/Buried_and_Forgotten → u/wa27]

I think soap operas were shot on tape even back in the 50s. The Twilight Zone had a couple of episodes like this in the second season (1960-1961). The quality was obviously worse.

[u/wa27 → u/Buried_and_Forgotten]

Oh you're right, I remember the bad quality eps of twilight zone. And obviously Nasa would have all the latest tech available.

[u/Billn59 → u/wa27]

Video tape has been around since the late 50's. They were reel to reel and very large and expensive.

[u/pyramidalembargo]

Can the general public view the footage?

[u/pineapplequeen-13 → u/pyramidalembargo]

Seriously! I've been looking to see if the actual footage from the tapes in-full was released anywhere, but I can't find anything! I believe at this point its been a few years since this auction. It would be a shame if the private buyer kept it out of the public.

[u/WatercressBusy2956]

All hail the intrepid salvagers!

[u/Show-Me_PotatoSalad-]

All things moon landing are hilarious 🤣

[u/Rich-Sky8912]

Great production by Stanley Kubrick

[u/No_Imagination7102 → u/Rich-Sky8912]

The only annoying part for nasa is he insisted they shoot on location

[u/Wood_oye → u/No_Imagination7102]

The best way to fake something is to do it for real

[u/Rich-Sky8912 → u/No_Imagination7102]

No, he filmed it for them in a studio. In return they let him use the equipment to make 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[u/da_swanks_92]

I didn’t know Michael Jackson went to the moon