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 01 October 2024. | News & Events 01 July 2024.


Featured for October 2024


Featured

Hamish Lindsay took this photo of Carnarvon Tracking Station from the Acquisition Aid boresight tower in 1965.

At centre is the Telemetry and Control Building constructed for Project Gemini, with the Acquisition Aid antennas in the foreground. At left, the ground is being prepared for the new Apollo extension.

In the background are the two tropospheric scatter antennas providing links to Geraldton. The Apollo USB antenna will be built between them and the T&C building.

Image from the 2024 Honeysuckle and NASA Networks (completely unofficial) Calendar on my personal website.


Featured

The Royal Australian Mint in Canberra produced this video to display at their current Australia in Space Exhibition. With the Mint’s kind permission, it’s featured here.


Featured

In 2008, Mark Gray of Spacecraft Films travelled to Australia as part of his recording interviews for his documentary “Live From the Moon – The Story of Apollo Television”. The resulting 1 hour 38 minute video is a unique contribution to the history of Apollo TV. Recommended!

External link to Vimeo.


Featured

Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight, 12–22 October 1968.

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

Featured

DSS41 Island Lagoon staff 1971 – numbered for ease of identification. (Can you help fill in the gaps? Contact.)


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.


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), 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.

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.




Privacy Statement:
This site does not collect or store any information about visitors or store cookies.
If a video or other element from another website (such as a video sharing service) is embedded on a page you visit,
then that service’s privacy and cookie uses will apply.

Site © Colin Mackellar 2003–2024. All rights reserved.