Monday, July 20, 2009

One small step for man...

One small step for man, one MAJOR COCK-UP for Nasa. Okay, the newspaper article titled it as "one giant blunder" but cock-up sounds better :) Today, July 20, 2009 is the 40th Anniversary of Man's Landing on the moon. That's right, 40 years ago on July 20, 1969 Man landed on the moon.



According to the newspaper, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) admitted that it had erased the Apollo 11 moon footage years ago so that it could reuse the videotape. Now studio wizards of Hollywood are digitally sharpening and cleaning up the ghostly, grainy footage of the moon landing, making it even better than what viewers saw on TV. Because there isn't any original footage, they are using four copies of the moon landing footage that Nasa scrounged from around the world and enhancing it.

The first batch of restored footage was released just in time for the 40th anniversary of the "one giant leap for mankind", and some of the details seem new because of the sharpness. Originally, astronaut Neil Armstrong's face visor was too fuzzy to be seen clearly. The upgraded video of Earth's first moon-walker shows the visor and the reflection on it.



A huge search that began three years ago for the old moon tapes led to the inescapable conclusion that the 45 tapes of Apollo 11 video had been erased and reused. The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tape that each contained 15 minutes of video.

Dragon 1/6 scale 12-inch NASA Astronaut (very detailed and IMHO the ultimate 1/6 scale astronaut out there) covered in an earlier post HERE



Remembering the Apollo moon landing

at

9 comments:

  1. cosmicbabyJuly 20, 2009 at 11:29 AM

    They never made it to the moon, it was all shot inside a Hollywood film studio to make you & the russians believe they got there after spending all those $$$

    ReplyDelete
  2. alex teoJuly 20, 2009 at 12:09 PM

    hi marcus, i was waiting for someone to bring this up - The Apollo Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theories -
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Moon_Landing_hoax_accusations

    now they can get the studio to add in the stars and make the footage look more real

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cal's Canadian Cave of CoolnessJuly 20, 2009 at 2:10 PM

    sigh...they went there...they did. Watch mythbusters debunk the conspiracy theorists. The thing that bothers me the most is that Neil Armstrong is so against talkin gabout the whole thing. Its the only thing that makes me think it may NOT be real. His perspective on the moment in history is unique and invaluable. I would love to sit with him for a couple of hours and just hear the story.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 20, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    The Dragon Buzz Aldrin is a very fine 1:6 figure. The only piece still available at UML (HK's retailer)'s outlet about a year ago was HK$1,000 (about USD125) and was considered as money for value. The cheaper ones from G.I. Joe are far inferior than the Dragon's. Just wonder why DID, HT, BBI and other famed manufacturers don't reproduce theirs along the theme.

    ReplyDelete
  5. alex teoJuly 21, 2009 at 9:38 PM

    hey calvin, wished i'd watched that particular mythbuster episode - must have been really interesting. i don't doubt the moon landings but the hoax conspiracy theories are worth looking into.

    hi anonymous, Dragon at its prime dared to venture into other areas of 1/6 not looked into by other companies and gave us some of the finest figures ever, the Nasa astronaut was one such item. Unfortunately, other companies prefer the commercially viable and profitable route by sticking to the military genre. How many PMCs or USMCs or Rangers or Delta Force operators have we seen already?

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJuly 22, 2009 at 3:26 AM

    wow lucky you having that Dragon Astronaut figure!!! very hard to find nowadays, and biddings at ebay for these, amounts to $200 or more :(
    by the way how many Astronaut figure did Dragon made? there seems to be a Aldrin, a Buck(?), and what else?
    -AL

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 22, 2009 at 3:52 AM

    I watched the First moon landing telecast at History channel last night and looks authentic and real...
    how about peeking thru a powerfull telescope to see that US flag they planted there at sea of tranquility?
    is it possible to see it??
    very nice collection you have of those astronauts, you even have the U2 Pilot figure!!!
    -AL

    ReplyDelete
  8. alex teoJuly 22, 2009 at 9:11 AM

    hi AL i got the astronaut when it was first released so i didn't have to pay the high prices it's commanding now. i believe two figures of the Dragon astronauts were released. i only got one because i think the only difference was in the head sculpts.

    i'm waiting for another country to make a moon landing so that they can confirm the US flag planted at the sea of tranquility - ha! ha!

    my first 1/6 figure was the Mercury Astronaut figure (link here - http://toyhaven.blogspot.com/2007/08/fly-boys-6-astronauts.html ) and i'm very keen on collecting 1/6 pilots. The BBI Elite Force U2 Pilot is very very nice!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousJuly 22, 2009 at 5:27 PM

    Hi all fans,

    I agree with Alex that Dragon is quite explorative in its heydays but now it lacks energy and locks itself to the WWII theme even in front of severe competition from DID and BBI. Though it releases some new figures in the recent 2 years, they are merely boring mutations of the earlier ones. Dragon's HK Police series in 1999-2002 is excellent. Don't understand why they don't re-introduce the HK Police theme when the HK Police force has changed the uniform since 2005. Today's Dragon is too obsessed with inertia. For sure, its market is being evaded by its rivals. Dragon's recent release of "Gear Plus" figures and the reduction of price for some new 1:6 items are evidence of their shinkage of market.

    ReplyDelete