NASA Debunks Apollo 10 'Outer Space Music' Around Far Side Of The Moon 'Report'

Over the weekend, reports surfaced of recently unearthed Apollo 10 audio that picked up some strange sounds over the far side of the moon. The alien sounds were almost like music, according to sites covering the declassified recordings. It would be a great story if any of it was true. NASA quickly debunked every aspect of the reports in a Tumblr post Monday. As for the audio being new, they have been publicly available since 1973, according to the space agency.

News surrounding the mysterious lunar music began circulating as a preview for the Science Channel program "NASA's Unexplained Files" that will air its season premiere Tuesday. The first episode includes the Apollo 10 recording of the strange sounds. The recording occurred in 1969, but NASA kept the files hidden until 2008, according to the Daily Mail. At that time, the Apollo 10 recording was declassified and it took another eight years before making its way into the public consciousness ahead of the premiere of "NASA's Unexplained Files."

The show has various experts knock down potential explanations such as atmospheric or magnetic field interference. There's even a quote from Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden who says the crew was experienced and whatever was on the recording had to be real.

NASA did not deny the authenticity of the recording or the quotes from the Apollo 10 astronauts, but the space agency did debunk every other aspect of the reports. As part of Tumblr post, NASA included the original transcript along with the note the document was declassified in 1973. The audio file in question can be heard here.

The Apollo 10 lunar module was named "Snoopy" and the command and service module (CSM) was code named "Charlie Brown." Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan was the lunar module pilot while John W. Young and Thomas P. Stafford were in the CSM. Throughout the transcript, there's a lot of discussion about background noise and hot mics. Early on, Cernan said he was yelling as loud as he could to ground control in Houston. "Sounds like — you know, outer-space-type music," Cernan is quoted as saying in the transcript. The conversation turns to other matters regarding burned insulation and fixing grape juice for the crew.

The odd sounds lasted for around an hour, but Cernan told NASA he believe it was radio interference. "I don’t remember that incident exciting me enough to take it seriously," Cernan said. "It was probably just radio interference. Had we thought it was something other than that we would have briefed everyone after the flight. We never gave it another thought."

NASA recently debunked AnonSec's claims it hacked into the space agency and retrieved secret drone footage.