Welcome to the Cellar, bbfrreak. :D
According to the Times...
A guy phoned up who worked for Nasa who was interested in how we took the pictures,” Mr Harrison told The Times. “He wanted to know how the hell we did it. He thought we used a rocket. They said it would have cost them millions of dollars
That's pretty ambiguous. First it's NASA, not Nasa. Second, millions of people work for NASA, directly or indirectly, and anybody on the phone can make that claim, to give themselves space creds. Even if it's true that he works for the agency, that doesn't mean he was calling at their request/on their behalf. Just as likely he was from the CIA or FBI... or Scotland Yard... finding out what this dude was up to.
I do agree, however, NASA would spend millions to get those shots, because they would want exactly those shots, not random pictures from 22 miles up. They have plenty of similar pictures. They would also incorporate taking the pictures into a program to do a bunch of other shit at the same time, plus spend a million on documentation and reports.
Way back in 1964, I worked for a Dr Howell at Tuft's University, where we:
1~ built a package containing a modified Nikon camera, a 24" gold plated beryllium mirror telescope, silver cell batteries, and some electronics.
2~ Flew the package from a balloon, down at Alamogordo, NM, where it climbed 20plus miles and took infrared pictures of the Moon and Venus, for a month.
3~ Remotely cut the balloon free, parachuted the package back to Earth, and retrieved the package with the film.
That package made 13 flights, all for less than half a million (1964) dollars.
