NASA’s never-before-seen photos of the moon landing are incredible
Hold the phone, NASA just released some brand new never-before-seen pictures of the moon. And hold up, how can NASA have pictures of the moon we haven’t seen before? Simple (and also sort of heartbreaking): due to budget cuts, NASA was never able to release them to the public in all their high-res glory, until right now. Thanks to Kipp Teague, founder of the Project Apollo Archive, these images have been restored to their original beautiful glory, in color, and we can look at all 8,000 of them online RIGHT NOW.
Back in 1969, for the first moonlanding, it wasn’t like Neil Armstrong could just snap a selfie on his iPhone and then Snapchat it to everyone, hashtag, #First. Nope. These astronauts were using Hasselbald cameras, with real film inside of them, and developing them is a delicate process. Preserving these images is even harder, since it’s not like they could then be uploaded to the Cloud in space. Needless to say, this restoration process has taken about 20 years to complete, but it was most definitely worth the wait. The final images are absolutely breathtaking, and give us a whole new way to look at the moon.
These images are also readily available. As Teague explained to Newsbeat, “Many times over the years I’ve been asked if I can make them available in a more user-friendly way. I felt it was time to get the full-resolution, unprocessed versions out there.” So where can we find all the images? On Flickr!
We’ve got over 120 pages with 8,000+ pictures pictures to look at. Many of the images are of the moon’s surface, while others were taken actually inside the spaceships. And yes, there are a few astronaut selfies in the mix, too. Best thing yet, all the pictures are in the public domain, meaning that they’re free for all of us to enjoy. And enjoy we will.
Take a look at just a few of the images posted to the site below, and know that more are coming. This is the first batch of them to make their way on to the website, with more Apollo missions still yet to be restored.
JUST LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL MOON! Head over to Flickr and fall completely in love with this celestial body.
(Images via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)
