Re: [ARSCLIST] Reels of spaceflight broadcasts.

[Leslie Waffen <leslie.waffen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike,

Official visual and aural documentation of the space program is preserved both at NASA Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers and at the National Archives which is the official repository of government records including special media.  The format for the early years of NASA was 16mm film, 35mm film, and some 70mm film. The original footage shot on the moon is of extraordinary historic value and kept in a cold storage vault here at NARA.

It is safe to say that every single space flight and mission from John Glenn through the Shuttle missions, and International Space Station, etc to today has been extensively photographed in stills and moving image, and I mean extensive as in exhaustive.  There is actually too much documentation for us to handle:  from the R&D phase, tests, training, to actual  pre-launch, mission, and post-launch coverage. Cameras have been positioned everywhere, record everything, and audio has been captured at one time even on 56-track recordings in the early years (which is a preservation migraine for us). 

What was broadcast over the television networks is what NASA public affairs provided as pool coverage to the networks to use.  So this "official" documentation is preserved [and being government produced it is public domain].  

Coverage of the NASA missions by the networks however which would include network commentary is a variation of the official coverage and may or may not have been saved by the networks. Is this important or of historic value?....maybe, for broadcast historians, if it is in a broadcast-quality format.  I would suspect the networks have it this way and have transferred their own coverage from the obsolete two-inch Quad, one-inch Type-A and C, and other now obsolete video formats to a modern robust format such as beta SP or digibeta.  

But, overall, as a general statement, home recordings made of NASA missions as broadcast to the public at the time of the event are interesting but the documentation is not unique, not of historic value, and not worth spending any funds or effort to reformat.

Les Waffen
Special Media Archives Services Division
National Archives

>>> Mwcpc6@xxxxxxx 04/29/05 04:42PM >>>
I've often wondered if there were adequate archives, government, broadcast,
and academic, of this material so that one can assume that any home recordings
of this type have no historic value. If one finds something that seems quite
unusual, how would one find out if "official" copies exist?

Recordings of this type would be of most interest to collectors or
enthusiasts in the particular field.  I have two reels of early 1/2" video tape,
nonstandard speed, of the first moon landing. It is quite an experience to watch the
entire event, in "real time" instead of just the usual series of snapshots.
This is something not often accessible to the general public.  There is also
something special about using the same machine that recorded the event at the
time it was happening.

These tapes might be of great interest to some individual, especially with
the original or similar recorder to play them. However, is it ethical or legal
to sell them?

Mike Csontos