Increased tensions in relations between the United States and Russia could pose a new challenge: Russia's investigation into the US landing on the moon. A spokesman for the government's official commission of inquiry, Vladimir Markin, argued in an editorial in the Russian newspaper Izvestia that such an inquiry could reveal new insights into this historic space journey.

According to the translation from the Moscow Times, Markin supported the investigation of the loss of the original landing record of the 1969 moon landing, and where there are lunar stones that have been brought to Earth over several missions.

"We're not saying they didn't fly for a month and just made a movie about it. But all those scientific - or perhaps cultural - artifacts are part of human heritage, and their loss without a trace is our common loss. So the investigation will reveal what actually happened, "Markin wrote according to the Moscow Times translation.

This editorial probably provokes no concern among NASA officials.

NASA alone in 2009 admitted that the original video record erased 200 000 from other tapes to save money, as reported by Reuters.

However, NASA has restored these landing copies with records from other sources such as CBS News. This organization has said that the result of the restoration effort is that the quality of the records is far better than the original ones that are lacking.