700 boxes of space flight tapes including five original Apollo moon landings have been lost, Australian scientist John Sarkassian from the Parkes Observatory revealed in his recent report. Sarkassian said he requested the tapes from NASA only to be told they were missing.
Originally stored at Goddard, the tapes were moved in 1970 to the US National Archives. No one knows why, but in 1984 about 700 boxes of space flight tapes were then returned to Goddard.
A desperate search has begun with the only equipment able to decode the analogue tapes held at the Goddard Center, which is set to close in October 2006. Scientists now fear the tapes will disintegrate before they are found and transferred into digital format.
Source Sydney Morning Herald August 2006