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  'Lost' Viking films auctioned, returned to NASA

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Author Topic:   'Lost' Viking films auctioned, returned to NASA
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-09-2015 11:38 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In 2012, RR Auction sold four original film reels from 1972 tests of the Viking Mars lander parachute. The films were subsequently donated to the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, which has now returned them to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where they were thought to be lost to history. The Bradenton Herald reports:
A few years ago, Jim Toomey bid on old NASA test films from an online auction and later donated them — along with other space-related items — to the South Florida Museum.

The Bradenton resident had no idea the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had been trying to locate those films for years.

...two weeks ago, Toomey said he got a message from the auction house that NASA was interested.

alcyone
Member

Posts: 130
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 10-11-2015 06:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for alcyone     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Interesting that parachute tech films from early 1970s are still relevant to Mars EDL studies today. Good story.

SpaceAholic
Member

Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-11-2015 08:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The 60's Apollo CM Parachute landing test footage informed current efforts to develop the CEV.

Cozmosis22
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Posts: 968
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 10-11-2015 08:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Cozmosis22     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So these films sold at auction back in 2012 and three years later NASA decides it wants them. A digital copy would have been sufficient for their stated rationale for confiscating them.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-11-2015 08:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA didn't confiscate the Viking films; the museum donated the reels.
According to a press release, museum officials decided to donate the films to JPL in the interest of furthering space exploration.

...before a large crowd inside the Bishop Planetarium, Matthew Woodside, South Florida Museum director of exhibitions and chief curator, said the museum was happy to have just been in this moment of serendipity.

"Museums keep things because it's a good idea to keep things and sometimes you don't know why you have them, but then situations like this occur," he said.

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