Man sought to go to the moon, John F. Kennedy said, “not because it was easy, but because it was hard.”
And photo restorer Andy Saunders applied the same incredible ambition and determination to painstakingly rework 35,000 photos from the Apollo missions that had until now been stored in a locked NASA freezer.
The hauntingly beautiful images, kept under lock and key at Johnson Space Center, Houston, show astonishing new insights into life aboard rockets and on the surface of the moon.
Because the footage was kept in the vaults for so long, almost every image of Apollo was based on copies of the master duplicates of the originals, resulting in a gradual deterioration in quality.
Now, with access to the source footage, Saunders has been able to shine a light on a dark corner of space and modern history, and the treasure has now been called “the best photographic record of mankind’s greatest adventure”.
Neil Armstrong is captured by Buzz Aldrin moments after their historic spacewalk in 1969, revealing the emotion on the astronaut’s face. It looks like he has a tear in his eye
Apollo 9’s James McDivitt jumps off the lunar module as Russell Schweikart takes pictures. Initially, the underdeveloped film showed only a speck of light before it was restored by Saunders
Charles Duke leaves a photograph of his family on the surface of the moon, his footprint clearly visible nearby. He wrote on the back: “This is Astronaut Duke’s family from planet Earth. Landed on the moon, April 1972. He said leaving it was an “emotional moment”
David Scott reflects back to himself in Russell Schweickart’s viewfinder on Apollo 9 during their ten-day mission
The film was shot during the Apollo missions from 1962 to 1972, including the only clear image of Neil Armstrong on the moon, and it took Saunders, 48, more than a decade to restore the set image pixel by pixel.
Because Armstrong held the camera, there was no image clearly showing the astronaut on the natural satellite before the restoration.
There is also the first clear picture of life on the doomed Apollo 13 mission, which saw the astronauts forced back to earth in the lunar module, as well as images of the golf ball Alan Shepard hit on the moon.
The astronaut joked on his return that he flew “miles and miles,” but the photo shows he actually traveled about 40 yards.
The contours, craters and features of the moon’s surface are also illuminated as it passes in front of the Sun on Apollo 11, a moment Armstrong said was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Saunders, a building contractor from Cheshire, quit his job to devote full time to reworking the images in the secret archive.
The first portrait of another person in space was taken in 1965, showing Ed White exiting the Gemini IV spacecraft in 1965, captured by James McDivitt
David Scott seen in the Apollo 9 command module hatch in 1969 in a photograph taken by Russell Schweikart, restored by Saunders
Buzz Aldrin took the first ever selfie in space in 1966 during the Gemini XII mission, showing the sun reflecting off his visor
The digital archaeologist used high-resolution scans of the original film material and applied modern digital editing and enhancement techniques to make the images as crisp and clear as possible.
He told the BBC: “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t see these important moments in history in anything other than incredible quality because they’ve used the best cameras, the best lenses and the best film that’s been processed in the most advanced technologies. photo lab available. It doesn’t make any sense.
All 16mm film footage was shot by the astronauts during the missions.
Saunders uses a “stacking” technique to create a highly detailed image after layering and processing multiple frames.
The process allowed him to reveal things that were not visible in the previous film footage.
In one scene, a speck of light from the underexposed image, which looked like a reflection in a window, revealed Apollo 9 commander Jim McDivitt in his helmet, about to launch two spacecraft.
Fred Hayes tries to sleep in the cold module of Apollo 13 in 1970. The mission was supposed to land on the moon, but an oxygen tank in the service module failed two days into the mission. The crew was forced to orbit the moon and return to earth in a dramatic moment that inspired the Tom Hanks film of the same name
On Apollo 8, Bill Anders used a “flap” for his onboard home movies in the rocket. Pictured on the right is the original image before Saunders’ restoration
Hauntingly beautiful images, kept under lock and key at Johnson Space Center, Houston, show astonishing new insights into life aboard rockets and on the surface of the Moon
Saunders said: “It’s just an absolutely stunning portrait of an Apollo astronaut in 1969, apparently almost looking out the window in wonder.
“In reality, it’s even better than that because McDivitt is actually in the process of joining and the stakes were very high. It was the first time we had people in a spacecraft that couldn’t bring them home because they were testing the lunar module and it didn’t have a heat shield.
“So if they didn’t make that docking, they couldn’t come back. This is an incredibly precious moment, an intense moment, a historic moment.
Saunders talked to astronauts and searched voice recordings to understand details of light and color to make the photos as realistic as possible.
They described the eerie blackness of the sky and the brightness of the sun, which he again captured in the images.
Tim Peake told The Guardian: “When I look at these remastered images of the Apollo missions, I remember what I experienced during my six months in space.
The images are included in a new book, Apollo Remastered, which will be published tomorrow by Particular Books.
Saunders can also be found on Twitter and Instagram.
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