MILA People

MILA’s The first Station Director was Australian – Jack Dowling.

Jack Dowling in July 1967, at a MSFN Station Directors meeting at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Click the image for the full photo, or here for a two-page 2.3MB PDF file key with names added. Preserved by Lewis Wainwright. With thanks to Kevin Wainwright. Scan by Colin Mackellar.

Jack had served in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War, and after the war was involved in missile testing at Woomera.

From 1957, as part of the International Geoephysical Year, he was put in charge of the original 108MHz Minitrack station on Range G at Woomera. (That station was later modified and moved to Island Lagoon.)

During the early Mercury missions, Jack was the Australian Representative to NASA, before being appointed as StaDir for MILA.

George Jenkins, who had also worked at MILA, succeeded Jack as Station Director. In total, he served at MILA for 26 years.

George Jenkins is third from the left (just above Don Gray) in this 1968 photo. Preserved and scanned by Mike Dinn.

In 1969, MILA personnel George W. Krop (SDDS tech) and Alfred R. Stella (Recorder tech) from MILA both travelled to Parkes to assist Robert Taylor (team leader) and Bill Reytar from Goddard for coverage of the Apollo 11 EVA.

More to come on this page.