July 20, 1969: Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon. Neil Armstrong, taking the photo, is reflected in his visor
Russia says an investigation needs to be launched over 'missing evidence' relating to the moon landings Nasa

A Russian official has called for an investigation to "reveal what happened" during the US moon landings.

Vladimir Markin, spokesperson for Russia's Investigative Committee, has called for the country to examine US space missions between 1969 and 1972 in a hope they will provide new insights.

While Markin does not suggest the US never landed on the moon, he argued in an opinion piece for the Russian newspaper Izvestia that there needs to be an inquiry into the disappearance of the original 1969 Apollo 11 mission footage and the location of the 400kg of lunar rock recovered from the journeys.

According to a translation by the Moscow Times, Markin wrote the piece in the wake of the US investigation into corruption allegations at Fifa, claiming they had "crossed the line".

"US prosecutors have declared themselves the supreme arbiters of international football affairs," he said before proposing how investigations could expose elements of the country's past too.

He added: "We are not contending that they did not fly [to the moon], and simply made a film about it. But all of these scientific — or perhaps cultural — artefacts are part of the legacy of humanity, and their disappearance without a trace is our common loss. An investigation will reveal what happened."

In 2009, Nasa admitted it had erased the original recordings of the first time Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and digitally re-recorded then using old footage from sources such as CBS.

Nasa said that due to the digital restoration of the footage, the new recordings of the historic landing are now better than the original film seen nearly 50 years ago.

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