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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 15 August 2019. | News & Jottings 06 July 2019.

Featured: August 2019.

The team at Namadgi National Park (the custodians of the Honeysuckle Creek site) produced this video to remember the 50th anniversary commemoration on 20 July 2019. Direct link to video.

It’s a complement to this earlier video.

Tidbinbilla’s Forgotten Role in Apollo

	Published in July 2019, this booklet outlines the key role played in the Apollo Program by HSKX, Honeysuckle Creek’s ‘Wing’ Station at Tidbinbilla. Download the booklet as a 900kb PDF file, courtesy of John Heath, Bruce Window and Mike Dinn. (A handful of printed copies are still available from John Heath.)
See also the Tidbinbilla section.

Remembering Carnarvon

Paul and Joan Dench remember their time in Carnarvon.

Wally Schirra at Carnarvon – updated photos.

Carnarvon Tracking Station Construction and Opening – 8mm footage from 1963-4 and commentary by Hamish Lindsay. Direct link to video.

The Manned Space Flight Network, 50 years ago

Technical Information Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 12, 15 August 1969.

MSFN performance for Apollo 11 was summarized in an operations message from the network operations manager to the MSFN on July 24, at 1630Z:

“There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that all of you comprise the greatest tracking network in the world. Your performance was magnificent.”

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

See also the updates page.

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.

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

Click for more about the book.

Royal Australian Mint Moon Landing Coins commemorate the Moon landing.

Click for more about the coins.


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.

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.