Apollo 11 Broadcast Lands NASA an Emmy

Commemorating the Apollo 11 Moon-landing anniversary, NASA Television was granted a prime-time Emmy award for excellence in engineering. Its live broadcast of the historic event brought millions in front of their TV screens, regardless of whether they were from New York, Tokyo, Sidney or London. The landing itself is, arguably, humankind's greatest achievement, and now, 40 years later, NASA is still collecting the benefits of its efforts. The original broadcast took place on July 20th, 1969.

“I congratulate the many NASA staffers who are being recognized by the academy with this award for contributions to television engineering excellence. From the first landing of man on the moon in 1969 to today's high definition broadcasts of America's ongoing space exploration initiatives, television has been a powerful communications tool that enables the agency to share its achievements in exploration and discovery with the world,” NASA's Administrator, Charles Boden, says, quoted by Space.

The agency will receive the award officially this Sunday, during a ceremony to be held at the Renaissance Hotel, in Los Angeles. NASA will be represented by Goddard Space Flight Center engineer Richard Nafzger and famous astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was one of the members of the original Apollo 11 crew. Unlike his famous colleague Neil Armstrong, Aldrin has adopted a life in the spotlight after the Moon landing, participating in a large number of official NASA functions.

“I am honored to have been selected to accept this award on behalf of NASA and the hundreds of engineers and technicians who made the telecast of this historic event possible,” Nafzger says. This is not the first award that the agency receives for 2009. Earlier this year, at a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, the Midsouth Chapter of the National Television Academy awarded NASA with the Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The new prize is the 2009 Philo T. Farnsworth Award. It is named after the man who is largely credited for designing and constructing the world's first functioning television network. It is awarded for continuous innovation and improvements in the field of television development, as NASA's engineers have always pushed the boundaries of what is possible to accomplish with a camera and wires further and further.