A cloth bag having full of souvenirs that was brought back to the Earth by great astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to land on Moon, has finally come to light after more than four decades of the Apollo 11 landing on the lunar surface.
Among the trove include a 16 mm movie camera from the inner side of the lunar module. The camera has successfully captured its descent to the moon and took a close shot of Armstrong’s first steps on its surface in 1969.
Allan Needell, a historical curator in the National Air and Space Museum, said, “The camera took one of the most significant sets of the images in the 20th century.”
According to Needell, the museum was informed about the bag in June 2013 by Armstrong’s widow.
She has reportedly discovered the bag while dusting out a closet area in their suburban home at Cincinnati.
Needell said that the museum carried a long process of documenting of the indispensable things in the bag. “We concluded the work only recently and this is the reason why the museum decided to go public now,” he said.
The findings were revealed on Friday by the museum which has already put the camera on display during a temporary exhibit.
According to Needell, the photographs captured by the camera are highly detailed with more clarity as compared to the grainy images that was seen on television at the time of landing on moon.
The film cartridges were taken out during the mission and hence, the device was no longer in use.
According to Needell, the discovery of bag is “extraordinarily exciting”.
The family of Armstrong, who died in 2012, loaned the incredible material to the museum while pledging to donate it.