On July 20, 1969, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission successfully landed on the Moon, with Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to step foot on the lunar surface. The event brought the world to a standstill as millions watched anxiously on live TV, before Armstrong delivered his legendary “one small step” speech that marked the end of the Space Race with the Soviet Union. Last Month, the “Apollo 11” film was released to mark the 50th anniversary of the monumental event, featuring footage of the mission never seen before.
Edited and directed by Todd Douglas Miller, it is the result of over two years of meticulous examination of old NASA archives.
Large parts of the documentary were developed from newly-discovered 70mm footage as well as 11,000 hours of audio recordings that had not previously been seen by the public.
Mr Miller and his team used new technology to transfer the film into stunning 4K, 8K and even 16K high-resolution digital formats.
The specific 70mm format in which the footage had been printed on stumped the team when they made the find, as it would not have made sense for NASA to record on this platform.
However, according to Mr Miller, it later became apparent that NASA had struck a deal with a media company to record the events surrounding Apollo 11 for a feature film to be released in 1970.
He told Vanity Fair how a couple of years before the Apollo 11 mission, NASA put together a deal with MGM Studios and the filmmaker Francis Thompson, a pioneer in producing giant-screen documentaries, to make a picture that would tell the story of the entire Apollo mission.
However, on short notice, MGM apparently backed out.
Six weeks before Apollo 11’s launch, NASA, eager to salvage some aspect of the project, reportedly asked Mr Thompson if he could help at all.
He supposedly recommended Theo Kamecke – the man behind the film Moonwalk One.
Mr Kamecke’s work was not an instant success when it was released in 1972 – but much of the public’s excitement of the Apollo programme had died.
As a result, a stack of Apollo 11 footage was kept at the National Archives and Records Administration where it was discovered by supervisory archivist Dan Rooney.
Mr Rooney told the producers of Apollo 11 about there existence, but he had never been able to watch them due to their format.
However, the team developed a scanner to bring the files into the modern era.
It comes after an Apollo boss revealed a NASA “secret” 50 years on.
Christopher Kraft was the lead flight director of the first Apollo mission – later known as Apollo 1, which exploded during a test flight.
Mr Kraft claimed during Altitude Film’s upcoming release “Armstrong” that the accident was pivotal to the rest of the Apollo missions.
He said: “It took the fire to rebuild the vehicle.
“And I think that was the secret to Apollo.
“Without it, it just wouldn’t have happened, I don’t think we would have got to the Moon.”
