Former NASA Intern Nets $1.8 Million at Auction for Moon Landing Tapes

Remember that amazing story we told you about the NASA intern that stumbled upon tapes of the moon landing during a surplus sale?

Well, the intern just sold those tapes at auction and it fetched $USD 1.8 million. For some perspective on the return on investment we’re looking at here the lucky intern bought these tapes in 1976 for $217.77 according to PetaPixel.

Auction house Sotheby’s held a sale for the tapes on the 50th anniversary of the landing on July 20. The intern, Gary George, purchased a slew of tapes at the surplus auction and parted with many of them over the years but held on to the three tapes labeled APOLLO 11 EVA | July 20, 1969 REEL 1 [-3] which were those that made him almost 2 million dollars richer. Prior to the sale, Sotheby’s had heavily marketed the archival nature of the tapes, claiming that the footage was “sharper and more distinct than the few tapes that have survived from the contemporary network television broadcasts.”

As for who bought the tapes no one knows. But don’t worry about NASA – they have their own backups despite prior reports that seemed to insinuate that the agency had somehow lost these tapes and didn’t have anything to show for the momentous occasion that happened on July 20, 1969.

Some people are pointing out that they think the tapes should have gone back to NASA in exchange for some kind of monetary compensation though, as we said, the agency has its own backups of the event. Others think it should have gone to a museum at the very least.

What do you think? Should the tapes have gone to some kind of museum? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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[PetaPixel]