The heart-stopping moments when Neil Armstrong took his first
tentative steps onto another world are defining images of the
20th century: grainy, fuzzy, unforgettable. But just 37 years
after Apollo 11, it is feared the magnetic tapes that recorded
the first moon walk - beamed to the world via three tracking
stations, including Parkes's famous "Dish" - have gone missing
at NASA's Goddard Space Centre in Maryland. A desperate search
has begun amid concerns the tapes will disintegrate to dust
before they can be found. It is not widely known that the Apollo
11 television broadcast from the moon was a high-quality
transmission, far sharper than the blurry version relayed
instantly to the world on that July day in 1969. Among those
battling to unscramble the mystery is John Sarkissian, a CSIRO
scientist stationed at Parkes for a decade. "We are working on
the assumption they still exist," Mr Sarkissian told the Herald.
"Your guess is a good as mine as to where they are.