A Tribute to the men and women of
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, Canberra, Australia

the wider Australian involvement
in manned and unmanned space exploration, and more!

Updated 09 December 2023. | News & Events 01 September 2023.


Featured for December 2023

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Hamish Lindsay took this photo of Honeysuckle’s 26-metre dish, looking down from the apex of the quadripod.

John Hart with the theodolite is at centre. Tony Salvage (white overalls) assists. The occasion is the Paraboloid Survey of the dish in preparation for joining the Deep Space Network – August 1974.

Image from the 2023 Honeysuckle and NASA Networks (unofficial) Calendar on my personal website.


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Download the 2024 Honeysuckle and NASA Networks (unofficial) Calendar from my personal website.


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Mike Dinn remembers Apollo 8.

External link to Vimeo. Video recorded 05 December 2023.


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See the Apollo 8 section for the Apollo 8 story, including a special PDF version of Hamish Lindsay’s Apollo 8 Essay.


tapes

Apollo 8 Audio Highlightsrecorded at Honeysuckle Creek.


Apollo 8 Onboard Audiodownlinked to Honeysuckle Creek.


tapes

Apollo 8 Recollections from space trackers.


tapes

Honeysuckle Creek tracks Apollo 8 on its first lunar orbit.

Photo by Hamish Lindsay, around 9:00pm AEST, Christmas Eve 1968.
Scan by Colin Mackellar.


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Watch: Apollo 8 Genesis Reading – “For all the people back on earth”.


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Watch: Apollo 8 Genesis Reading – with onboard audio.


Tributes to Ken Mattingly and Frank Borman

Apollo 17 Astronaut Dr. Harrison Schmitt has recently published tributes to Frank Borman (Apollo 8 Commander) and Ken Mattingly (Apollo 8 Capcom, and Apollo 16 CMP). Click the links to see them on his website, americasuncommonsense.com.


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Gemini Program audio recorded at Carnarvon Tracking Station.


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Site launched 14 December 2003.
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed so wonderfully to help preserve the history of Honeysuckle Creek, the other tracking stations, and others involved in the missions.

(Photo by Hamish Lindsay.)

Still plenty to add to the website, so please stay tuned!


See Previous featured items at this link. (Newest at the bottom.)


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

Some of them are collected here.


Site Menu

Updates | News

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
,

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,

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).

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


Featured

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


Honeysuckle featured photo
Honeysuckle featured photo

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.

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

Click for more about the coins.


Honeysuckle in 1971

Neil Armstrong on the footpad – as seen at Honeysuckle Creek

Honeysuckle Creek:
a beautiful setting

Website by Colin Mackellar – photo taken 09 October 1971.


Prime Minister Gorton’s statement
Prime Minister Gorton’s statement

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.

Both clips courtesy of the ABC. See more of the Prime Minister’s visit here.


One Small Step: The Australian Story

Featured

Watch “One Small Step: The Australian Story”, produced by Freehand TV in Sydney for the BBC, for the 40th anniversary in 2009.
This is a unique account of Australia’s role, and features key players from Honeysuckle Creek, Tidbinbilla and Parkes. Recommended.

(If you’ve seen the much-loved Australian comedy “The Dish”,
watch this to discover what actually happened.)


The Honeysuckle antenna today

Honeysuckle featured photoThe 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.




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