The course to the moon for several crew members from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Apollo lunar missions went directly through Hawaii.

That's the take-away from a series of black-and-white images captured during the 1960s and 70s and depicting the space agency's astronauts training amid the desolate volcanic terrain of the Big Island, which apparently greatly resembles the surface of the moon, according to the state's Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) Website, where the re-discovered stills have been posted.

The vintage collection of shots includes: astronauts training on the lunar roving vehicle, or "Moon Buggy," in 1971; a close-up of Apollo 15 Commander Dave Scott in 1970; another 1970 image of Scott and Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin digging for soil samples; a 1969 close-up of Apollo 13 Commander James A. Lovell Jr. scooping soil samples; and a 1970 shot of Apollo 14 crew members Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa walking along the rocky island terrain with a wheeled equipment transporter.

The Website explains that last December Rob Kelso, the PISCES executive director, embarked on a personal serach for photos that documented Hawaii's role getting explorers to the moon.

Kelso, a former NASA space shuttle flight director, looked through an array of photo negatives stored in the photo archive at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston -- and found extraordinary shots.

NASA thereafter scanned and transferred the images to a compact disc, which PISCES received this last February. The Center has since been working on putting together two murals displaying the pictures.

Established in 2007, PISCES is a Hawaii state aerospace agency that conducts environmentally-safe field tests on Hawaii's volcanic terrain to experiment and validate advanced space technologies, operating under the jurisdiction of the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR).

The program also strives to be a "world-class institution of research, education, and training" focused on creating "21st century jobs, educate our children, and improve the sustainability of Hawaii," according to a the PISCES mission statement.

The agency is operated through Hawaii's Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.