Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

280 reMeMberING the SpaCe aGe
the background and bean being refected in Conrad’s visor—is as captivating
an image of man on the Moon as is the defnitive aldrin portrait. 16
In addition to these photographs are the largely overlooked black-andwhite
photographic images of apollo 11 made by ed von renouard, a video
technician at the honeysuckle Creek tracking Station in Canberra, australia. 17
During armstrong’s historic descent from the LeM, von renouard took 35
mm black-and-white images of of his video monitor while it was receiving
the frst live downlink to earth. the downlink was being transmitted from
a remote slow-scan, black-and-white video camera that was attached to the
Modularized equipment Stowage assembly (MeSa) unit on the side of the
LeM descent stage.
Von renouard photographs captured the ethereal look of “live” blackand-white
tV images mixed with the silver-grain textures of black-and-white
flm as armstrong descended down the ladder. In some respects, both the
aesthetics and the nature of how and where these black-and-white images were
made complement armstrong and aldrin’s hasselblad surface photography.
Moreover, they document the frst human to descend to the surface of another
celestial world on flm through video. these “mixed media” images made it
possible to photograph and participate in an historic event as it happened of of
a live tV broadcast without even being there.
Up to this point, I have discussed several iconic photographs from the frst
50 years of american space exploration. however, in compiling a short list,
I would also include: the frst photograph of earth from the orbiting satellite
explorer 6 in 1959; the May 1961 redstone launch of Mercury astronaut alan
Shepard; the february 1962 atlas launch with John Glenn; the frst eVa (extra
Vehicular activity) ballet of ed White from Gemini 4 in 1965; the frst earthrise
as seen from the Moon by Lunar Orbiter l in 1966; Neil armstrong’s apollo 11
portrait of buzz aldrin standing against a black sky on the surface of the Moon
in 1969; the full “blue-marbled” earth showing antarctica as photographed by
the crew of apollo 17 in 1972; Voyager 1’s frst image of earth and the Moon
from seven million miles away in 1977; bruce McCandless, II in his MMU
(Manned Maneuvering Unit) foating away from the Space Shuttle in 1984;
the in-fight explosion of the Challenger in 1986; the hubble Space telescope’s
photograph of M16, the eagle Nebula’s “pillars of Creation,” in 1995; the “pale
blue dot” of earth as photographed by Voyager l from four billion miles in
16. for further discussion on the altering of the iconic aS11-40-5903 of buzz aldrin by NaSa,
please refer to eric Jones commentary from the apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal at: http://
history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11-5903history.html.
17. for an extensive description on both the role of the honeysuckle Creek tracking station during
the apollo 11 and the resulting video and photography, see http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/
Apollo_11/index.html.