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The USNS Vanguard was one of three T-AGM-19 class Apollo Instrumentation Ships – the others being USNS Redstone and the USNS Mercury. They featured S-Band comms dishes and FPS-16-class
radars as well as HF and Comsat terminals.

Image from the 2026 Honeysuckle and NASA Networks (completely unofficial) Calendar on my personal website.

25 June 1964. The DSIF42 85-foot antenna at Tidbinbilla is in the early stages of construction.

Print preserved by Stew Burton. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

This photo will be added to the forthcoming section on the construction of DSS42.

04 June 1968. “Digital Computer Fundamentals” course, led by Harry W. Villiard of Goddard’s Network Test and Training Facility. At Honeysuckle Creek.

L-R: At the UNIVAC 1218 , John Crowe, Honeysuckle; Les Whaley, Tidbinbilla; Harry W. Villiard, NT&TF; and Brian Dawes, Carnarvon.

Photo: Hamish Lindsay. Preserved by Les Whaley, scan by Colin Mackellar.

This will be added to the forthcoming section on the Network Training and Test Facility.

15 June 1971.

Len Litherland, Ian Grant and Bryan Sullivan, with Mike Evenett at the console, closely watch a simulation for Apollo 15.

15 June 1971.

Evan Gull, NASA 421 Sim Conductor, at left, presides over the pre-Apollo 15 simulation at Honeysuckle on 15 June 1971.

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

The Big Picture

Hamish Lindsay’s essays

Honeysuckle Creek

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

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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 commemorated 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 runs for 4'02" – a 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.