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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 13 July 2019. | News & Jottings 06 July 2019.

apollo50thaustralia.org (external link)

Bookings closed on 30th June.
We also understand that entry to the Honeysuckle Creek site on Saturday 20 July is by invitation, due to constraints outside the Committee’s control.

Moon Week in Canberra

There’s plenty to see and do for everyone during Moon Week in Canberra with many events open to the general public.

The Australian National University has produced a comprehensive and very helpful booklet.

Learn more at this link.

Featured: Apollo 11 50th Anniversary – July 2019.

Most of the Honeysuckle Creek team for Apollo 11.
Photo by Hamish Lindsay. Other photos here.

“We have just switched video to Honeysuckle.” – Houston TV.

What happened with the Apollo 11 TV signal. Who received it, and where did it go? Direct link. More here – including the Honeysuckle audio with transcript.

From Mike Dinn – Some helpful thoughts about over-analysing the past.

“In regard to who did what 50 years ago, it should be borne in mind that this was a real time operation – ensuring that the best available data, up and down (telemetry, command, voice, tv) was selected and sent to and from Houston.

We were, and were expected to be, flexible and responsive to dynamic situations. And be capable of supporting any part of the mission – e.g. landing, EVA, lift off, rendezvous, docking. Further, these capabilities included responding instantly to problems – ground or spacecraft.

So analysing who did what in some ways degrades what we were actually capable of, trained for, and proud of.”

The first step – what the world saw. (Net 2 audio added on right channel.)

The Apollo 11 Moonwalk as seen at Honeysuckle Creek – unique footage.

Honeysuckle Creek’s Video Tech, Ed used his Super 8 movie camera to record the activity at the tracking station – as well as television from the Moon (in real time and also from telemetry tapes immediately afterwards).

Direct link to the video. (Yes, I used the same music for both videos...)


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.

NASA Apollo 11 Audio News Features

In the countdown to the Apollo 11 50th anniversary, listen to these 24 NASA Audio News Features, hosted by broadcaster Willard Scott.

Apollo 11 at Honeysuckle Creek

Hamish Lindsay’s essay on Apollo 11.	Prime Minister visits HSK on the day.	First hand accounts: Apollo 11 at HSK.

Apollo 11 audio recorded at HSK.	HSK comms loops as the Moonwalk begins.	The Station Log for Apollo 11.

Apollo 11

Tidbinbilla – Honeysuckle’s Wing.	Jack Garman & the 1201, 1202 Alarms.	Final Flight Plan for Apollo 11.

The launch from the NC & FD loops.	The launch as seen from 43,000 feet.	Network audio of Eagle’s landing.

Walter Cronkite visits Goldstone.	Television Camera carried to the Moon.	Apollo 11 TV Ground Support.

Parkes to Sydney TV signal path.	Western Australia sees the TV.	Sydney Video celebrates.

A Penguin Award for the Apollo 11 TV.	Qantas Captain sees re-entry.	‘The Moon Men’ visit Sydney.

For the Apollo 11 50th anniversary, here’s a vector version of the mission patch. It’s scalable to any size.

Kangaroos on the Moon. (Produced for the 40th anniversary.)

Two stories of watching the Moonwalk

Stan Lebar, Program Manager for Westinghouse Lunar Television Cameras, visited Australia in March 2006, to be present at a Honeysuckle Creek / Apollo reunion. He brought with him a Lunar Television Camera identical to the one left on the Moon by Apollo 11.

While here, he gave a public lecture at the National Museum of Australia. In this excerpt from his talk, he tells two stories. Direct link to the video.

The Manned Space Flight Network, 50 years ago

Technical Information Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 11, 20 July 1969.

Apollo 11 Mission a Success.
Honeysuckle Creek Engineer Develops 642B Utility Package.

The TIBs were published by the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Manned Flight Operations Division for Network personnel. Those already online can be found here.

See also the updates page.

See Previous featured items at this link.

Site Menu

Updates | News

Honeysuckle Creek

Intro
Early Days (Location, Construction, Early scenes, 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.

About / Contact
Tips on navigating the site
Links

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

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

Click for more about the book.

Royal Australian Mint Moon Landing Coins commemorate the Moon landing.

Click for more about the coins.

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


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.

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.