The Newsroom

Mission to the Moon - News from 1969

ITN's mock news reports from 1969 about the moon landings (July 2009)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
IS
Inspector Sands

They've appeared on Youtube from Lowry Digital already, though they may be restorations of the standards conversions rather than from the original. Gizmodo has a link up at the moment.


They're linked to here:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/07/16/-this-just-in-to.html
MA
Markymark
Haven't NASA lost the original recordings of quite a lot of the Apollo landings? (By those I mean the recordings made in the oddball Apollo video format - which was a slower frame rate and different line count, and when upgraded to colour was frame sequential) and only have recordings of the standards conversions recorded on broadcast VT in 525/60 (aka NTSC) - and possibly some Aussie 625/50 recordings (which I think were made directly from the Apollo video format in Aus for live broadcast, so they didn't have to go to the US and back)



Yes, the Parkes site in New South Wales

There's some excellent info here:-

http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/apollo11/

Also worth watching is the movie, 'The Dish', which (for a public release film) contains a fair amount of authentically created events, and some amusing made up ones too.
NG
noggin Founding member
Sadly it sounds like the original SSTV recordings (I.e. the 10 frame per second 320 line Apollo 11 stuff unconverted) were wiped when the telemetry tapes (which included the SSTV recording) were wiped for re-use. Not just the BBC then...

What they HAVE found is better quality broadcast conversions (some recorded in Australia post-conversion, some recorded at CBS direct from Houston) that are higher quality than the most widespread conversions we always see.

Lowry Digital (who are experts in movie restoration, but have history with space video restoration AIUI) have restored the broadcast conversions - not the SSTV stuff.

But the presser continues...
IS
Inspector Sands
Sadly it sounds like the original SSTV recordings (I.e. the 10 frame per second 320 line Apollo 11 stuff unconverted) were wiped when the telemetry tapes (which included the SSTV recording) were wiped for re-use. Not just the BBC then...

What they HAVE found is better quality broadcast conversions (some recorded in Australia post-conversion, some recorded at CBS direct from Houston) that are higher quality than the most widespread conversions we always see.

Lowry Digital (who are experts in movie restoration, but have history with space video restoration AIUI) have restored the broadcast conversions - not the SSTV stuff.

But the presser continues...


Watching the presser too, I assume the YouTube clips above are the ones that they're about to unveil?
EDIT - yes they are
NG
noggin Founding member
At least there is a ray of hope that there was a modified broadcast 2" VTR converted to record the unconverted SSTV in Australia (a separate project not part of the NASA TV operation) that MAY still provide the original SSTV content.
BR
Brekkie
The 1960s ITN logo as the endcap was also a lovely touch!

And looked far better than the current ITN endcaps.
NI
Nicky
mizzb posted:
Nice little show with a good presentation team.

However the show could have been improved with a clip or two from the news from 1969. I'm hoping they will include a report from Peter Fairley in there somewhere too as he was a prominent presenter with the ITN coverage of the Apollo Missions.

This show should be repeated at an earlier time on one of the ITV channels so that younger viewers can watch this as well.


Your request appears to have been fulfilled; they showed an archive report in tonight's programme - and I expect there'll be another one on Sunday or Monday - complete with the "Peter Fairley, ITN" sign-off. Very good series so far, just a shame it's only ten minutes long.
CH
Chie
I highly recommend the documentary film 'In the Shadow of the Moon' which is currently airing on Channel 4 (until 2:10am).

It's far superior to any of the dross that the BBC or ITV have done about the moon landings recently.

(There's also a good clip on my YouTube channel if you've missed it.)
TM
Telly Media
Have to agree, I thought the ITN programmes for ITV were complete dross. And there was something really patronising about John Suchet's delivery. I'm sure most people would prefer to have seen the original news bulletins replayed instead. They would have given a much better sense of occasion and a real insight to the excitement people must have felt at the time, rather than the very fake, gimmicky output of last week.

That said, here’s the original title frame from the opening sequence last Thursday …

http://www.skynetworks.f2s.com/mission_to_the_moon_title_frame_03.jpg
BR
Brekkie
Were ITN responsible for previous "hostory" based news bulletins like the Christmas and Easter ones fronted by Martin Lewis, and IIRC they did ones based around the second world war too.
KE
kernow
Were ITN responsible for previous "hostory" based news bulletins like the Christmas and Easter ones fronted by Martin Lewis, and IIRC they did ones based around the second world war too.

There was a series in 2000 called "News 40 - The Battle of Britain", which was presented by Martyn Lewis, and featured ITN reporters, although it wasn't produced by ITN.

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/33821
MI
Michael
Were ITN responsible for previous "hostory" based news bulletins like the Christmas and Easter ones fronted by Martin Lewis, and IIRC they did ones based around the second world war too.

There was a series in 2000 called "News 40 - The Battle of Britain", which was presented by Martyn Lewis, and featured ITN reporters, although it wasn't produced by ITN.

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/33821


http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/23620 and http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/24844
BBC produced "News 44" with Sue Lawley and "News 45" with Martyn Lewis in 1994 and 1995 respectively for 50 years since D/VE Days.

Martyn Lewis also presented a series of "historical" news bulletins surrounding the birth and death of Jesus on ITV.

Newer posts