Why Didn't NASA Share These Images?

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[ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching as always. Hope you found this as enjoyable to view as it was to make it.

[DigiBentoBox]

This is incredible. It makes me sad, too, knowing that this genre of reportage, this era of photography and Kodachrome and the zeitgeist of space optimism, is over, and I will never be a part of it. I’m so happy you mentioned Dan Winters. His work is incredible, and gives me hope that the genre of Space documentary is still alive and itself modernizing and growing and developing into the Next Generation of inspiration. Thank you for this video. I will order this book for my birthday!

[GrenvilleMelonseedSkiff]

Brilliant! Some of my earliest memories are of being late for school in the morning so that I could watch Mercury and Gemini launches on TV. That Saturn V launch film is so impressive! I’m retired now but a special memory for me from my career with a famous UK based aero engine manufacturer was to support the engines on the Shuttle Training Aircraft. Astronauts used the STA to practice Shuttle landings. The space station, orbiting telescopes … all amazing stuff … and now … Artemis is go!! Thanks for a wonderful video!

[richardowen]

Back in the early 1980s, I worked on creating a launch pad at Vandenberg AFB for the Space Shuttle for launches that could be done to the south for polar orbits. The facilities were completed in the mid-1980s but no launch ever occurred. The image that hit me hard here was the Challenger explosion. I was working on an FAA contract at the time and my wife called me at work to tell me what had happened.

[Giakalope]

Thank you, that was FANTASTIC!
You’ve done such a bang-up job producing this video, I’m sure it’s going to be watched over and over 🤩

I wish I could run into Taschen’s next door and buy this beauty, but it will have to wait until October!

[kevinmclin]

Wow. Thanks for that. One of my earliest memories is my mother waking my brother and I in the middle of the night so that we could watch the astronauts walk around on the lunar surface. When I was about six or seven I had that photograph of Neil, Buzz and Mike Collins as a poster on my wall. It started a lifelong love of science and astronomy (I eventually became an astrophysicist), and I still cannot watch the launch of a Saturn V without my eyes tearing up a little. It was the most amazing thing ever.

[ramirosanchez]

This segment produced is one of the finest pieces of yours. Sequence of pictures along perfect music, your descriptions and your thoughts made a great documentary. Thank you for sharing!

[carolwatts]

Absolutely stellar video, Alex. One of your best, IMO. I was moved to tears during the take-off. With earbuds in, I actually felt the rumble & roar. I grew up during the 50’s & 60’s & watched the moon shot on my aunt & uncle’s little black & white, rabbit-eared tv. The whole family gathered around the kitchen table. There was barely a sound in that room other than what we watched on the screen. Thank you for bringing back those nearly forgotten, almost indescribable memories.

[treinenliefde]

What you said from around 9:22 is exactly what I find interesting, but also genuinely difficult to do. I have a big interest in railways and because of that railway photography, and making images that are artistic and exiting but also practical from a documentary standpoint is just something else. It's always a fun challenge.

[adrianlucy]

Alex can I just say you’re my favourite thing to watch on YouTube, I don’t know how you always have something fresh & insightful to say! Space flight has been a lifelong obsession so this ones right up my street 😀

[aes]

I was a staff scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena when the Challenger accident happened. One of the technicians came running into my office and said that the space shuttle had exploded. We ran across the street to the JPL library where they had a live feed from the Cape. By the time we got there it was pretty well over and what you could see was the two smoke trails from the solid rockets that had sheared off in different directions. Eerie and, to say the least, disturbing.

[webvideofan]

0:26 That space Lego scene is a vibe.

5:49 great launch sequence audio!

I want this book now. 👍🏻

[kennethpaul]

July 20, 1969. I will always remember that date of the first moon landing because it coincided with my Grandmother's birthday. I also happened to be in Burbank, California for work and, on a day off, I went to Hollywood. It happened to be July 20, 2008 and I ran across the plaque in the sidewalk commemorating the first moon landing so I HAD to get a photo of it. I've also been a fan of space exploration and sci-fi movies and shows. You did such a great job of honoring the human endeavor of expanding the knowledge of space, and the art of photography that you wouldn't think would be in those images. Also, how it equates to our own photography here on this tiny planet. It brought back so many memories of watching many of those events on TV. Thanks for another great video production. You've made a big splash (pun intended) in the YouTube universe.

[danieldarks]

Always love the "why" of photography that you explain. It is the depth of the medium you give to me and I enjoy waiting to see what you have for me next.

[tims]

Wow, this book looks fantastic. For me its Apollo 11 that gets me going. I was 15 in 1969. And I saw movie of the enhanced Apollo 11 story at a film theatre a while back... and that launch - the seats were vibrating and the noise was absolutely deafening and we all stared in awe at the power of it all. When I see it again it sends shivers up my spine and tears prick my eye. I agree with you about the slightly sad images of an empty and decaying (?) launch centre in Florida. Everything seemed possible back then...but maybe not as it turned out. I also have a little book called Hasselblad and the Moon Landing by Deborah Ireland which is all about the special Hasselblad cameras that were used during the Apollo program. Well worth a look as it contains some great images, albeit on a smaller scale than the bemoth you have there. Thanks for this video Alex. Wonderful.

[LeeAllen]

Awesome video. As you'll notice, my profile picture is William "Bill" Anders' Earthrise photo. Such a profound photo.

[johng]

Being born in the '50s, these photos bring back a LOT of memories. Thanks for sharing.

[travelrecordmusic]

Watching this video was beautiful in so many ways and on so many levels.

I was less than 10 years old when Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon. My entire school was huddled into a number of large classrooms with big (at the time) televisions wheeled in to watch it. Soon after, my father was doing an industrial plumbing installation at a large printing company that was, coincidentally, up the road from my school. While there he saw a book coming off the presses – a test pressing for the plumbing instal I believe – and said “My son would love a copy of that!”

That night he handed me a large, full colour, glossy book containing dozens of pics of, and related to, the moon landing. Some kind of commemorative issue. It was about the size of an LP record cover, exuded the smells of fresh printer’s ink, and contained absolutely stunning images with crisp whites and the most absolute blacks imaginable.

I was just a kid at the time, experiencing the world mostly through grainy black-and-white TV and newspapers. I’ll never forget the amazingly crisp, detailed and colourful images in that book, many of which appeared in this video with the same invitation to dive into the blackness of space. Just WOW!

Great video. Thank you!

[tedbrown]

Very thought provoking images. Makes you question what do they know that we haven't been told ? Thank You Alex.

[williamquinn]

I am old enough to remember the Apollo fire! RIP!