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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 19 October 2018. | News & Jottings 01 October 2018.

Featured: October 2018.

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight, 12–22 October 1968.

“I can still remember the excitement at HSK as we were about hear US voices on the downlink for the first time.” – Bryan Sulllivan.

Apollo 7’s Donn Eisele and Wally Schirra during their first TV broadcast.

What was happening in the MSFN 50 years ago

Technical Information Bulletin of the Manned Space Flight Network, Vol. 5, No. 20, 15 October 1968.

The TIBs were published twice monthly by the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Manned Flight Operations Division for Network personnel. Where possible, the plan is to publish on the front page the TIB which was current 50 years ago.

This TIB was preserved by Honeysuckle Creek’s Bernard Smith. There are others yet to scan. Those already online can be found here.

See Previous featured items at this link.

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

Planning for the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11.

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Honeysuckle Creek

Intro
Early Days (Location, Construction, Opening)
The Station (Technical description, photos)
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 The DVDs.

Interviews

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.

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.

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


A beautiful setting Website by Colin Mackellar – photo taken 09 October 1971.	Honeysuckle and Apollo 11 The Apollo 11 Mission. Apollo 11 TV. Search for the tapes.

Apollo 11 40th The Apollo 11 40th anniversary celebrations in July 2009.	The Honeysuckle Creek DVDs Including Ed von Renouard’s Apollo 11 Super 8 movie – and the full Restored Apollo 11 EVA.


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.

What really happened with the Apollo 11 TV signal. More here.

One Small Step: The Australian Story

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. On YouTube.

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

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.