Apollo 11 Audio Recordings Being Digitized At UT Dallas

Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Poses next To The U.S. flag On Moon
Photo credit Credit: NASA/GettyImages

As we approach the 50th anniversary of man's first steps on the Moon, there are more stories coming out about how much America missed "behind the scenes" of Apollo 11. 

The University of Texas Dallas has hours and hours of audio recordings of the mission that are just now coming out. There are more than 200 analog tapes, each one with 14 hours of sound and more than 30 different tracks. 

Dr. John Hansen and his research team are working to digitize these audio tapes, but it's a long project. One guess says if they tried to digitize them one track at a time, that could take more than 170 years. 

He also says we've heard a lot of the audio from the moon mission through other sources, such as the "One small step for Man" and "Tranquility Base, the Eagle has landed... ". 

Dr. Hansen says some of the unheard audio shows how professional the crew were at NASA in 1969, in spite of little problems that would creep up during the mission. 

He also points to one story where a breathing sensor went out on Buzz Aldrin's spacesuit on the Moon. 

Aldrin told NASA, "If I stop breathing, you'll be the first to know"