NASA’s “lost” tapes of the first moonwalk are part of a new outer-space gallery at the Ripley’s attraction on International Drive. The company purchased the Apollo 11 videotapes at a Sotheby’s auction for $1.82 million in 2019, and museum visitors now can see the tapes that feature Neil Armstrong’s famous “one giant leap” moment.
Nearby relics at Ripley’s include a 3,000-pound meteorite, a piece of Mars that can be touched, Buzz Aldrin’s jumpsuit and five strands of Armstrong’s hair. The new Out of This World Gallery represents the completion of the renovation of the I-Drive attraction, which has been planning and phasing in new exhibits since mid-2020.
The lunar tapes, considered the sole surviving first-generation recordings of the event, were recovered by a former NASA intern who purchased multiple tapes in 1976 at a government surplus auction for $270.77.
Labels on the reel read “Apollo II EVA, July 20, 1969.”
There were fears that the tape had been recorded over, a common practice. But now the tapes are in a temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled setting, said Sabrina Sieck, senior creative content manager.
“This glass, obviously, is UV-security rated, LED-only lighting so it defaults at certain times to protect the film a little bit more,” she said.
Ripley’s display also explains how the images were beamed to Houston (via Australia) and compares the quality of the televised footage with scenes from the 1969 reels, one of which includes the call to the moon from President Richard Nixon.
“That will tickle a lot of people’s fancy,” said Dennis Speigel, CEO of International Theme Park Services. “They always seem to get that high-level, cutting edge item that people want to come and see, that draws them in the door rather than going to something next door.”
The space gallery features a hands-on area to demonstrate movement in space. Gloves “show how an astronaut has to work in space,” Sieck said. “You kind of feel what those challenges are and kind of what that is to maneuver a little bit.” There’s also a 16-foot-tall screen with video content, but it can be switched to live programming.
“So, if Artemis wasn’t launching in the middle of the night, we could have an event here where guests watch it live on the screen,” Sieck said.
Continuing the otherworldly theme of the exhibit is a movie prop: Luke Skywalker’s original lightsaber handle from “Star Wars,” which Ripley purchased in 2017.
The Out of This World Gallery is the climactic scene within the new traffic flow of the attraction, which still showcases oddities, but additional interactive moments are now in place. In a section about mummies, a touch-screen kiosk allows virtual exploration of the figure’s layers “without physically harming the exhibit,” Sieck said.
The renovation has added “a little more science and education to what would have just been kind of sitting on the shelves,” she said.
Other galleries include one with rotating exhibits from other Ripley museums (it currently has a sideshow theme) and another that mimics the company’s warehouse and allows searches on the items Ripley has among its worldwide collections. There’s also a “Florida Tour” stretch that includes myths and legends.
“We try to incorporate something local for each of our attractions to really prove the point that all of our attractions are completely different from one another,” Sieck said.
Ripley Entertainment, based in south Orlando, has 32 museums, frequently referred to as “odditoriums,” as well as aquariums, a set of Mirror Maze locations and other attractions, including miniature-golf courses and Ripley’s Red Train Tours in St. Augustine.
“I’d say they’re the king of impulse attractions around the world,” Speigel said. “Every country in the world wants them.”
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