A footage of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of the Apollo 11 could be put into scrutiny in order to curb worldwide skepticism about the 1969 moon landing.

According to CSIRO operations scientist John Sarkissian, the footage was lost in archives for many years but it remains to be the best footage of the historic 1969 moonwalk. The film shows the first few minutes of Armstrong's descent which was recorded through telescopes in remote Australia when NASA was still trying to catch a signal.

The Australian coverage shows a far clearer image of Armstrong than was initially screened worldwide. Sarkissian said, “NASA were using the Goldstone (California) station signal, which had its settings wrong, but in the signals being received by the Australian stations you can actually see Armstrong.”

Sarkissian is a member of a small, informal team searching for the missing Apollo 11 SSTV Tapes. The search for these tapes has been on since 1999.

The CSIRO scientist said frame by frame work on the badly damaged film had to be done to shift the material from the deteriorating black and white film to digital format. He said, “It was very damaged tape as well, that segment of Armstrong at the beginning,"

The Australian footage will be shown at the awards night of Australian Geographic magazine next Wednesday. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin will be the chief guest.