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Description
The filmmaker records with his lens the screen of the Greek Television which will soon make its first live connection, in order to broadcast -through the channel of Italian television RAI- the space mission Apollo 11 to the Moon, on July 16, 1969, with the Columbia spacecraft and a three-member crew consisting of the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

On the screen, we watch the sign of the Armed Forces Television (TED), the frequency on which it was broadcasting (Channel 5) and the reporter Nikos Bougas announcing the continuation of the program. The Greek Television connects to the Italian Television, the Press and the Official Guest Room and we see live streaming from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy (later Cape Canaveral), Florida, USA.

News correspondents broadcast the preparation of the mission, the astronauts have lunch and we see shots from the spaceship, the clock on the screens counts down, the big moment of the launch to the moon.

The journalist Iason Moschovitis was hearing from his headphones the description of the lunar mission Apollo 11, and what was happening at Cape Canaveral, by his Italian colleague and transmitted it through his microphone to all the Greeks who were watching.

Italian actress Monica Vitti with film director Michelangelo Antonioni make statements to RAI. For technical reasons, it was not possible -that night- for Greece to see the moon landing and Armstrong's first steps on the moon live and the specific historical events were transmitted by TED at 5 o’clock in the morning.

The Greek Television aired other programs in the meantime such as "Bingo" with Nikos Mastorakis, statements by the-then-US President Richard Nixon, reports on the mission crew, spectator enthusiasm in Naples studios during the moon landing, a music program -presentation of the greek song "Men do not cry" with the singer Marinella and the composer Giorgos Katsaros.

Columbia returned to Earth on July 24, in the Pacific Ocean near the aircraft carrier "Hornet", on which President Nixon was aboard and where the crew was immediately locked in a special mobile quarantine facility. The purpose of the quarantine was to prevent the spread of any contagions from the Moon, though the existence of such contagions was considered unlikely. We see statements by officers, the band plays celebratory music, Nixon congratulates and greets the isolated astronauts through a window.

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Film Information

Holder
Chatzidakis Georgios

Quality
HD (1440x1080)

Sound
No

Color
Yes

Duration (seconds)
1729

Format
8mm