# Did NASA stage \[some footage from the Apollo 12\] moon landing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886 "2014-09-18T23:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrFloppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/21 "2014-09-19T17:44:26Z")
They can’t have shipped the entire sound stage to the moon. The Van Allen Radiation Belts would have damaged umm…you know…something important. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/22 "2014-09-19T20:48:44Z")
I don’t recall this particular incident, but I do recall that the networks often showed simulations (of dockings, orbiting craft, whatever) and they were always labeled as such, even though they could never fool any knowledgeable person. As I recall, network news was really good about explaining the science and showing simulations and such. They actually seemed to be sincerely interested in educating the public. If only television news would do that these days, especially about things like climate change, or vaccines, or economics, or election laws, or any number of other things. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/23 "2014-09-20T02:22:46Z")
I can’t comment on the actual OP question (wasn’t old enough) but according to the HBO miniseries _From the Earth to the Moon_ Bean did indeed accidentally point the camera at the sun after removing the lens cap.and fried the spiffy hi-res color camera they brought (Apollo 11 only had a low-res slow scan (15 fps) B&W video camera). There’s a great scene where the reporter Emmet Seaborne (a fictional amalgam of all the era’s NASA reporters) is live on TV with a small model of the moon landing site and says, _“Well folks, unfortunately it looks like we’re not going to be getting the anticipated color footage from the Moon”_. They then cut to a commercial and he smashes the model and shouts to his director, _ **"What the fuck happened up there!!"** _ ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/24 "2014-09-20T08:17:31Z")
I remember my primary school class trudging through the snow to the other school site to watch some coverage, and then the caption appearing to tell us that Bean had killed the camera. I wasn’t allowed to stay up to watch Apollo 11 land, Apollo 13 never made it… by the time 14 got there it was an anticlimax. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/25 "2014-09-20T18:20:31Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Thank you, Randy Seltzer, for the absolute final and inarguable proof that too many posters don’t bother to read past the title. That’s one giant leap for mankind. Unfortunately the women still don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/26 "2014-09-20T20:24:40Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Let’s face it - if NASA wanted to do a reenactment, they would have shipped the sound stage to the Moon first, just to get the gravity looking right. Yep! ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/27 "2014-09-20T23:04:58Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Let’s face it - if NASA wanted to do a reenactment, they would have shipped the sound stage to the Moon first, just to get the gravity looking right. “_[Fake the footage of the fake moon landing **on** the moon? What if people found out?](http://youtu.be/P6MOnehCOUw)_” (1m55s in) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/28 "2014-09-21T00:17:41Z")
I found lots of the original TV coverage on YouTube: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/81DcEGSbSUc/hqdefault.jpg "Evening News Coverage of Apollo 12 Part 1") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81DcEGSbSUc) As other posters report, a lot of the footage is clearly marked “Training Film” or “Animation”, when live footage was not available. As the reporters mentioned “if all goes as schedule they will be on the moon in the middle of next week sending back television pictures in Living Color”. They were indeed expecting the color footage but the snafu prevented that. There was color footage of Pete Conrad descending to the lunar surface. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YEEIJYrXn9s/hqdefault.jpg "Apollo 12 First Steps") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEEIJYrXn9s) The camera failure did come after the landing: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UtBMAMO11e8/hqdefault.jpg "APOLLO 12 Camera Failure") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBMAMO11e8) It seems that some newscasts reported about the landing using animation and stock footage, seems to me that it is likely that many who remember the landing are remembering the recreations and not the live landing. I found the American Forces Vietnam Network reporting on the second day activities, and the military reporters mentioned that that CBS got them the simulated footage. And they did mark the footage as “SIMULATION” during the broadcast. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p2XNW5wfU4I/hqdefault.jpg "AFVN Apollo 12 Moon Walk Coverage by American Forces Vietnam Network") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2XNW5wfU4I) On the next video at 5:00 Andy Rooney reports on the reason why a lot of the live footage was missing, he showed a model of the camera that failed and the Conrad snafu. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-oaSp1RV2sc/hqdefault.jpg "News Coverage of Apollo 12 Part 10") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oaSp1RV2sc) As in the American Forces video, when animation and models were used the video does report that it is a “SIMULATION” or “ANIMATION” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/29 "2014-09-21T11:08:24Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > > > Thank you, Randy Seltzer, for the absolute final and inarguable proof that too many posters don’t bother to read past the title. That’s one giant leap for mankind. > > Unfortunately the women still don’t get it. Huh? Color me baffled about **billfish678** ’s point. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886/30 "2014-09-21T12:19:28Z")
Here’s a [picture of a latter simulation](https://www.facebook.com/132774600078701/photos/pb.132774600078701.-2207520000.1411292310./770647812958040/?type=3&theater) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-nasa-stage-some-footage-from-the-apollo-12-moon-landing/698886.md?page=1)