Photos from the Apollo 11 Mission

By JOE MCKNIGHT

Photos from the Apollo 11 mission

Decisions! Decisions!

Retired Photographer Bob Jarboe is still pondering whether he made the right decision on pictures which the crew of Apollo 11 brought back from their first landing on the moon in July, 1969.

The Dallas Morning News last April 19 printed a large reproduction of one of those pictures -- showing an astronaut’s boot print in the dusty surface of the moon. A small inset showed an astronaut standing beside a pole from which Old Glory fluttered.

Jarboe said the NASA Mission Control center in Houston released a number of pictures the astronauts brought back when they landed that July 24.

“We at AP sent some 20 photos of the mission that evening and had five set up as wire-openers when the Wirephoto network opened the next morning,” Jarboe recalls.

“Bill Achatz, Dave Taylor and the rest of the photo crew retired to a Holiday Inn bar set up in Achatz’ room. I was elected to stay behind and send the wire-openers.

“Shortly before Wirephoto opened, New York photos called and said ‘Lets cut down your openers to three transmissions. We are backed up by last night’s jam. Give us your three best.’

“The three best did not include the footprint shot, in my opinion. But now I can’t remember what the three best were.

“Since then, the ‘footprint on the moon’ photo has become the symbolic picture of the mission. No one in New York ever complained about my call, but I have lived with it for many years.” (June 2, 2004)