On the evening of Friday 11 July 1969, Deputy Station Director Ian Grant, Station Director Tom Reid and Operations Supervisor Ken Lee review preparations for the imminent Apollo 11 mission.

See other photographs taken on the same day.

Image from the 2025 Honeysuckle and NASA Networks (completely unofficial) Calendar on my personal website.

Hear Honeysuckle’s John Saxon and Parkes’ David Cooke in 2009 as they remember the Apollo 11 mission – with thanks to Darren Osborne.

In 2008, Mark Gray of Spacecraft Films travelled to Australia as part of his recording interviews for his documentary “Live From the Moon – The Story of Apollo Television”. The resulting 1 hour 38 minute video is a unique contribution to the history of Apollo TV. Recommended!

External link to Vimeo.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Read about it in the new ASTP section.

LOS Dr. Eric M. Jones.

We are very saddened indeed to receive the news that Eric Jones, founder of The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal has died in Albury, NSW, after an illness.

Eric’s passion to carefully chronicle the Apollo Program’s lunar surface operations linked many enthusiasts around the world. He is remembered not only as an enthusiastic and careful historian of Apollo, but also as a good friend to many.

Learn more about Eric on this page in the Space People section.

(Photo: Angele Glover.)

Mariner IV – Tidbinbilla’s first mission.

For the 60th anniversary of the Mariner IV flyby of Mars in July 1965, Glen Nagle has used the latest AI video generation tools to produce a wonderful video tribute to everyone at Tidbinbilla who supported the mission.

15th July marks the 60th anniversary of the Mariner IV flyby of Mars.
Learn about support for Mariner 4 – including a PDF file assembled by Glen Nagle – in the Tidbinbilla section.

Remembering NASA Rep Charlie Taylor – in the Space People section.

In the countdown to the Apollo 11 launch, NASA commissioned broadcaster Willard Scott to produce 24 brief Audio News Features.

Many of Honeysuckle’s Apollo 11 team. Taken just after the mission.

Parkes, 21 July 1969, just after the storm which threatened their reception of Apollo 11 lunar television.

Gene Kranz’s White Team in Mission Control just after the mission.

See the full collection of featured items at this link.

Also see some related (and some unrelated!) video at vimeo.com/honeysuckle.

Some of them are collected here.

Updates | News| Previously featured items

Honeysuckle Creek

Intro
Early Days (Location, Construction, Early scenes, Opening)
The Station (Technical descriptions, photos)
Honeysuckle People, Stories. (incl. Visitors, StaDirs, Reunions, and more.)

Apollo Missions

The Manned Space Flight Network,
Mission Control Center - Houston,
MSFN Technical Information Bulletins

Preparing for Apollo, Goddard Sims, Station Readiness Tests,

Apollo Summary,

Apollo 1, Apollo 7, Apollo 8, Apollo 9, Apollo 10, Apollo 11, Apollo 11 TV, Apollo 12, Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17, ALSEP, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Leaving the MSFN.

Deep Space Missions

Last Days Honeysuckle Today The Books

Videos

Interviews

Space People

Other

Other Stations
Tidbinbilla, Goldstone, Madrid, Carnarvon, Guam, Ascension Island, ARIA, Deakin Switch, Parkes, Muchea, Red Lake, Island Lagoon, Orroral Valley, Cooby Creek, Carnarvon OTC, OTC (Aust), BFEC, Santiago, Darwin, Texas (Corpus Christi), MILA.

Missions Supported by Other Stations
Mercury: Friendship 7, Faith 7.
Gemini: Gemini 3, Gemini 4, Gemini 5, Gemini 12.
Mariner IV, Ranger, Lunar Orbiter, Surveyor, Pioneer, Viking, Voyager.

Department of Supply
Pioneers, WRESAT, Woomera.

About / Contact
Tips on navigating the site
Links

A message from Christopher Kraft, 14 March 1974, on the occasion of Honeysuckle leaving the Manned Space Flight Network.

Honeysuckle Creek
The story of Tom Reid, a little dish, and Neil Armstrong’s First Step – by Andrew Tink, 2019.

Click for more about the book.

In 2019, the Royal Australian Mint Moon Landing Coins commemorate the Moon landing.

Click for more about the coins.

Australian Prime Minister John Gorton visits Honeysuckle Creek on the day of the Moon Landing, Monday 21 July 1969. Silent film (14MB MPEG4 file).

The Prime Minister after his tour inside Honeysuckle’s Operations building. Unedited news film runs for 5'14". A 21MB MPEG4 file.

The Honeysuckle antenna today

The old Honeysuckle antenna was used for its last official track in January 2010.

DSS46 photos.

And here’s a tribute page of photos on the occasion of the shutdown.