The truth behind the ‘missing’ Moon tapes appears to have finally been revealed in a jaw-dropping new interview.
This comes as YouTuber Tim Dodd, better known online as Everyday Astronaut, appeared on an episode of the Danny Jones Podcast where they discussed the lost footage.
The missing Moon tapes is a conspiracy theory that claims NASA either lost or destroyed the original video of the Moon landing in 1969 and this somehow is proof that the event was faked.
However, Dodd has spoken out to set the record straight, explaining: “That one is so misconstrued. The only data that was lost ever, from anything is the original transmission of Apollo 11.”
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He went on to say: “These tapes that, the backup tapes, you know, the raw data tapes weren’t considered like this like holy, you know, grail. We have to hold on to these cuz these are so they had everything. They had all the video.”
The original SSTV data tapes were likely erased and reused due to storage shortages, which was commonplace at the time.
Speaking about the thought process at the time, Dodd continued: “They didn’t imagine a world where we could take and re-scan and up you know up-res the hell out of that footage as well because it would have been a lot cleaner in that raw format.”
Over 50 years since the last Moon landing, NASA is now shifting its focus back to putting astronauts on the lunar surface, with the four person crew of Artemis II expected to lift off sometime in March this year.
The astronauts will depart Earth and embark on a journey to the Moon where they will travel around the lunar rock before heading home.
A further mission, Artemis III, hopes to take off sometime in 2027 which will see astronauts land on the Moon for the first time since 1972.
Their task will be to explore the lunar south pole.
Billionaire Elon Musk is also turning his sights to the Moon, taking to his own platform X, formerly Twitter, to write: “For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years.
“The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars.
“It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (2 day trip time). This means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city.”