What telemetry or radio evidence did non-US observers record of the Apollo 11 landing?
Executive summary
Independent, non‑US recordings of Apollo 11 exist but are limited: amateur radio operator Larry Baysinger recorded VHF voice from the astronauts on the lunar surface, and a handful of professional observatories (Bochum, Jodrell Bank, Arcetri and others) tracked or recorded portions of the mission and telemetry—confirming transmissions originated at the Moon rather than relying solely on NASA relays [1] [2]. NASA’s own telemetry tapes—original SSTV/raw data backups—were searched and in many cases found erased or missing, which complicates reconstruction of raw downlink telemetry beyond what ground stations archived [3] [4] [5].
1. What non‑US observers actually heard and recorded
European observatories and some amateur radio operators independently picked up signals from Apollo. Bochum Observatory director Heinz Kaminski and the Arcetri Observatory (Florence) detected transmissions; Jodrell Bank tracked the mission and reported observations; and radio amateur Larry Baysinger made an independent VHF recording of the Apollo 11 EVA that captured astronaut voice without Houston’s CAPCOM feed—evidence that direct lunar‑surface transmissions reached terrestrial receivers outside the U.S. network [2] [1].
2. Amateur interception: Larry Baysinger’s VHF recordings
Baysinger, a Louisville radio amateur, set up a homemade antenna specifically to “eavesdrop” on Apollo 11 and succeeded in recording lunar‑surface voice transmissions during the EVA. His recordings differ from NASA audio because they lack Houston’s uplink/CAPCOM tones and show the one‑way nature of lunar transmissions as received locally—supporting the claim that the astronauts’ VHF voice could be observed independently [1] [2].
3. Observatory and professional tracking: corroboration beyond NASA
Multiple professional facilities tracked Apollo 11. Jodrell Bank and Bochum provided independent tracking and signal reception; these observatories published observations that corroborated mission timing, signal origin, and aspects of the downlink. Such third‑party telemetry/track records form a body of evidence independent of NASA control‑room archives [2].
4. What kinds of telemetry were available to outsiders
Available reporting shows outsiders recorded voice and carrier signals and, in some cases, partial telemetry characteristics; however, the deep‑format one‑inch telemetry tapes that contained raw SSTV and other high‑rate data were held by NASA and later reported missing or erased—so full raw telemetry for independent re‑analysis is often absent outside NASA custody [3] [4] [5].
5. The missing tapes problem: why independent evidence matters
A multinational team examined missing Apollo 11 telemetry tapes and concluded many raw-format tapes containing SSTV backups were shipped to Goddard and later erased and reused, with Australian backups also erased after transfer—meaning independent tapes held by NASA were not available for later forensic analysis [4]. The team reported that Goddard and NASA followed procedures at the time, but the erasure reduces the amount of original, high‑resolution telemetry that outsiders could use to corroborate every low‑level signal detail [6].
6. What this does—and does not—prove about the landing
Third‑party radio and observatory recordings demonstrate that transmissions did emanate from lunar distances and were detectable outside the U.S. tracking network, providing independent confirmation of live downlinks [1] [2]. Available sources do not mention independent non‑US capture of the complete raw telemetry archive or full SSTV masters; the primary missing items are NASA’s own one‑inch telemetry reels [3] [4].
7. Competing narratives and why both matter
NASA’s archival releases, mission audio transcripts and mission‑control records document the landing and its telemetry flow; independent observatory and amateur captures corroborate key elements and address concerns about single‑point control of evidence [7] [2]. Skeptics point to the erased NASA tapes as a gap; defenders point to multilateral tracking and later orbital imagery showing Apollo hardware as reinforcing the landing’s reality—both perspectives appear in the reporting [4] [2].
8. Bottom line for researchers and historians
If you seek raw, unprocessed one‑inch telemetry for Apollo 11, reporting shows those tapes largely cannot be recovered because many were erased or reused by NASA and Goddard in the 1980s [4] [6]. For independent verification researchers must rely on professional observatory logs, amateur VHF recordings like Baysinger’s, mission audio and the extensive NASA transcripts and archives that remain available [1] [7] [5].