Honeysuckle Creek Operations Supervisor John Saxon speaks with the crew of
Orion
Before EVA 2, comms lines from Houston to Honeysuckle
are lost, though lines from Honeysuckle to Houston (via Goddard) are not affected.
Sitting inside Orion and having their beakfast,
John Young and Charlie Duke have been discussing with Capcom Tony England
the upcoming EVA. It takes a little while for it to become obvious that they
aren’t hearing anything back from Houston.
In order to inform the crew what is happening,
Honeysuckle’s Operations Supervisor, John Saxon, pushes his ‘Press
to Talk’ Switch to send his voice to the transmitter, becoming the only
Australian (and possibly the only person outside Mission Control) to speak with someone on the Moon.
The audio from Orion is very poor quality due
to the problems they were having with Orion’s steerable high-gain antenna.
When inside the Lunar Module, comms used the omni directional antenna which
resulted in a much noisier signal. (During EVAs, the crew used the high gain antenna on the Lunar Roving Vehicle.)
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John Saxon writes:
“Even though it was exciting to finally
get to talk to the Apollo 16 lunar surface crew, I have always
felt somewhat embarrassed about the conversation. Particularly when
I read the transcript. The conversation was somewhat strained to say
the least. It was mostly due to the very poor down voice signal to noise
ratio, making it very hard to understand.
What you can’t hear are my almost simultaneous
conversations on several other voice loops to get NASCOM (GSFC Voice
and Deakin) to sort out the (one way) voice problem.” |
John says that this copy of the Honeysuckle recording was put onto cassette
from the FR1900 recorder for him by John VanderKly.
Here’s the transcript:
Saxon: “Orion this is Honeysuckle. We
have a comm outage with Houston at this time. Stand by one, please.”
Young: “Okay, Honeysuckle nice to talk to you. How are ya’ll all
doin’ down there?”
Saxon: “We’re doing great. Nice to talk to you.”
Young: “You sound good.”
Saxon: “Roger that – We’ll be with you shortly, we are just
getting some lines reconfigured here.”
Young: “Have a Swan for us.”
Saxon: “Say, again, Orion. You’re pretty poor quality on this back
up.”
Young: “I said quaff a Swan for us.”
Saxon: “Ah – I still can’t copy you, Orion. Sorry about this,
the quality is very poor at the moment.”
Young: “Okay you’re loud and clear.”
Saxon: “Roger that, I read you a bit better now."
Duke: “Honeysuckle, what John was saying was have a Swan for us.”
Saxon: “Oh, Roger.”
(John Saxon calls
Houston Comm Tech again on Net 1 – he cannot hear any reply. John’s
voice is being heard in Houston.)
Saxon: “Orion, this is Honeysuckle –
We’re still having trouble with the incoming from Houston. We should
get it restored very shortly for you. Sorry about the delay.”
Young: “Roger, thank you.”
Saxon: “Okay, we’re reading you
this time for a change.”
Duke: “Okay you guys are nice to talk to. We don’t care about Houston.”
Saxon: “Thanks very much. Certainly appreciate it. It’s a pleasure
working on this mission.”
Young: “Roger. We’d sure like to come down there and see you folks
after this is over too.”
Saxon: “Right you’ve got a permanent invite, anytime you like.”
Young: “That’s very kind.”
Saxon: “We will keep the beer cool for you.”
Young: “You’ve just got a couple of fellas going to show up on your
lawn here.”
Duke: “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”
Saxon: “I think it’s a pretty good one down here too.”
Duke: “You see in my terminology friendly 48 packs, right now that’s
how I feel. Really love one.”
Saxon: “Roger that. We’re still having difficulty with the comm,
Orion. Hopefully, very shortly, we will get the net up for you.”
Duke: “Okay – take your time, don’t worry about it – we’re
eating.”
Saxon: “Don’t worry Orion, we are worrying!”
The lines from Houston were restored a few minutes later.
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The Goddard Network Director had requested a transcript of the conversation. This two page TWX is the result.
Preserved by Hamish Lindsay. April 2022 scan by Colin Mackellar. |
The conversation was reported (mp3 file) by newsreader James
Dibble on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s 7:00pm TV news
bulletin in Sydney the next day, Sunday 23rd April 1972. |
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After John Saxon spoke with the
crew onboard Orion, he ‘copped a ribbing’ and Laurie Turner wrote this
poem to commemorate the occasion.
Scan: John Saxon. Thanks to Tony Gerada for identifying the author. |
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John Saxon sent this TWX to Mike Dinn, who was spending some time at JPL working on DSS43 systems integration.
Mike had the previous Southern Hemisphere communication distance record from when he spoke with Apollo 8 on their way to the Moon.
Scan: John Saxon. |
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Having seen the above TWX, someone else also wrote this poem.
Preserved by Hamish Lindsay. April 2022 scan by Colin Mackellar. |
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“Have
a Swan for us.” Here’s to the Swan Brewery!
After the
Apollo 16 mission there was time to enjoy some Swan Lager, supplied
by the Western Australian brewery.
From left: Jerry Bissicks (USB), Don Gray (Station Director) replenishing
Saxon’s glass, Geoff Seymour (Computer/Telemetry Engineer), John Saxon (Ops Supervisor), Ian Grant (Deputy Station
Director), and Milton Turner (Departmental Admin Officer).
Photo: Hamish Lindsay. Updated scan from Hamish’s 5x4 inch negative by Colin Mackellar. Photo taken August 1972. |
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The story was told in “The Black Swan”, the official journal of the Swan Brewery, Perth WA. Issue Vol 9 No 5 dated Sept 1972.
Preserved and scanned by Milton Turner. |
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A Swan over lunch at Honeysuckle Creek
Table at left: (L-R) Don Loughhead ?, Bryan Sullivan, Geoff Seymour, ?, Mike Evenett.
Table at right: John Saxon, John Vanderkly (back to camera), ? and Lisa Jensen.
John Saxon thinks that’s probably Barbara Vanderputt at the far table behind him. Tony Gerada suggests it’s Don Loughhead at far left.
Notice also that none of the bottles appear to have been opened. These were photos taken to send to Swan Brewery. Most of the bottles went home.
Photo: Hamish Lindsay, preserved by Milton Turner, scanned by Betty Saxon. |
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Another view in the canteen.
On the closest table, Tony Gerada identifies, from left to right – Col Cochran (Ginger headed Scotsman) Frank Campbell, Alan Vonthetoff.
Also Dave Ralph on the far table.
Photo: Hamish Lindsay.
Preserved by John Saxon, scanned by Colin Mackellar. |
See also the poem / song written by Archie Morrison at Sydney Video on this page.
On July 16 1994, John Young was special guest at the Apollo 11 25th anniversary dinner / dance at the Hellenic Club in Canberra.
He and John Saxon toasted the mission – with Swan Lager.
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Mike Dinn preserved this video of the event on July 16 1994. Recorded by Rebecca Dinn. Edited by Colin Mackellar.
(If full screen does not work in your browser, please watch it here on Vimeo.) |
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At the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11 celebrations in Canberra, in 1994, John Saxon finally has an opportunity to share a Swan Lager with John Young.
Top: The beer is poured as Captain Young watches.
Bottom: The two Johns salute each other.
Photos: John Saxon. |
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Ten years later, in 2004, Dwight Steven-Boniecki presents a bottle of Swan Lager to Charlie Duke.
Dwight writes,
“Being Australian, being in contact with John Saxon, and knowing I would meet Charlie Duke at the (9 October 2004) Autographica convention in the UK, it seemed only right that Charlie should be presented with the Swan Beer.
Saxon supplied a letter for Charlie and I arranged to get the Swan Brewery to ship out some beer especially for the event.” |
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