Apollo 11 took off 40 years ago Thursday, and official Washington was in full celebration mode. NASA commemorated the event at its headquarters with a discussion called “Apollo: History and Legacy.” The takeaway: 6 percent of Americans still believe the moon landing was staged. Craig Nelson, author of “Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon,” had something to say about that. “My favorite Armstrong quote is: ‘It’s so much easier to go there than to fake it,’” he said.
The National Archives did its part as well, screening the grainy 1970 film “Moonwalk One.” They opened the event with a lecture about President Richard Nixon’s involvement and played bits of his famous phone call to the moon. They also took a bite at him for canceling later lunar missions by playing a conversation that had him complaining, “Why do they have to go up there and take a look at the damned thing again?” The film itself showed cheesy footage of parties the night before the launch, the making of space suits, astronaut training and detailed footage of the launch.
The Newseum also had a small celebration where NASA discussed its partnership with Lowry Digital of Burbank, Calif., to restore the quality of video from the Apollo 11 mission. John Lowry, founder of Lowry Digital, invented a video noise reduction technology that was used during the live broadcast of Apollo 11. The restoration project will be released in September, but Newseum audiences got a sneak preview. They showed four before-and-after scenes of Apollo 11, including Armstrong’s first step and the raising of the American flag on the moon.
