The restored footage of the 1969 landing shows the moment when Neil Armstrong descends the ladder and sets foot on the lunar surface. A second scene shows Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.

The release comes ahead of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo landing on 20th July.

The restored footage is clearer and less grainy than the original. When the two are viewed side-by-side the original appears to be seen through a mist.

While on the original, Armstrong climbing down the ladder is a shadowy form, barely identifiable as an astronaut, details of his helmet and his spacesuit are clearly visible on the new footage.

“Our job was to restore and archive this outstanding achievement of mankind for future generations,” said Dick Natzger, the Nasa engineer who was in charge of Nasa’s ground television control for the Apollo mission and leader of the restoration project.

The archive film used for the restoration was that sent out by broadcasters at the time. Mr Natzger had, however, been hoping to obtain higher quality “slow scan” film reels that had directly recorded the data sent down from Apollo by satellite.

But, in what now seems an extraordinary oversight, the reels were sent - as per standard Nasa policy - to an archive centre in Australia to be stored for a nominal period before being returned to Houston to be reused to record data on other missions.

“Three to four years later they would probably have been wiped and recorded over,” said Mr Natzger.

Nasa did not keep a backup set of the high quality footage, which Mr Natzger says everyone now regrets. “Boy do we wish they’d done that,” he said.

Mr Natzger recalled the nerves surrounding the original documentation, which he says could have easily have been thrown by a technical hitch.

“We don’t get the chance to do a remake like movie directors. History happens only one time,” he said.

Also present at the Nasa press conference was Stan Lebar, who built the original camera - a 7lb shiny silver box, which ran on the power of a single fairy light.

Mr Lebar also read out a statement from Neil Armstrong on his recollections of being recorded.

“I remember all the preflight testing we were doing on the little black and white TV camera and not a single transmission worked properly, but the chaps assured us it would work - and it did,” he said.

“So when flight control came through saying they’d got a picture I was never concerned about image quality, I was just amazed that they were getting a picture at all.”

A Hollywood film restoration company, Lowry Digital Corporation, who have previously produced remastered versions of the Star Wars Trilogy and Indiana Jones, carried out the work.

Nasa rejected the suggestion that the decision to employ a Hollywood company to restore moon footage would fuel conspiracy theories.

In total, 15 scenes from the lunar walk are being restored. The entire footage is due to be showcased in the autumn.

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