Apollo 16 Commander Astronaut John Young was the special guest of honour at the 25th Anniversary of Apollo 11 celebrations in July 1994.
The celebration was held before the anniversary of the actual landing to enable Young to return to Houston for anniverary events there.
There were two events in Canberra – one at Tidbinbilla and another at the Hellenic Club. (See below.)
Integral to both events was the presentation, by John Young, of a large lunar sample on long-term loan to the Tidbinbilla Visitors Centre.
The rock, lunar sample 10072,80, with a mass of 142.25 grams, was collected by Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin on 21 (UTC) July 1969.
10072,80 was hand-carried by John Saxon from Houston to Canberra, arriving on 9 July. It was placed into the custody of the NASA Senior Representative at the time, Mr Ted Ankrum, who had facilitated the request for the loan.
(John was working at JPL Pasadena at the time and was flying back to Australia anyway, so arrangements were made for him to detour to Houston to pick up the sample, then fly to Canberra via Denver, LAX and Sydney.)
According to Mike Dinn, the rock is the largest Apollo 11 sample on display outside the USA.
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Apollo 11 lunar sample 10072.80 on display at the Tidbinbilla Visitors Centre in 2013. Photo: Colin Mackellar. |
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The information sign next to the sample explains that it is a vesicular basalt with an age of approximately 3.8 billion years. 2013 photo: Colin Mackellar. |
1.) An anniversary event at 1:30pm on Friday 15th July at Tidbinbilla – in the Visitor's Centre theatrette.
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In this 13 July 1994 memo, Mike Dinn (now ‘Director Emeritus’) outlines the events planned at Tidbinbilla.
Click for a 2 page PDF file – preserved by Mike Dinn. |
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After John Young presents the Apollo 11 Moon Rock, Mrs Monica Flint presents him with a “Tidbinbilla rock”, poem and card.
The Flint family owned the land around Tidbinbilla and members of the family were regularly invited to significant events at the station.
Image from a TV report. |
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Paul Mullen and Nevil Eyre at the event.
Image from a TV report. |
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The ‘Lunar gravel’ and flown Australian flag, also displayed at the event.
This had been originally presented at Parliament House in Canberra by then Vice President Spiro Agnew on behalf of President Nichard Nixon in 1970.
This photo was taken at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra by Colin Mackellar in December 2020. |
2.) A much larger event with a dinner/dance at the Hellenic Club in Canberra of Saturday 16th July.
Held at the Hellenic Club in Phillip, this was the major event of the anniversary.
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Invitation to the Dinner Dance, via Mike Dinn. |
Mike Dinn had announced his retirement to coincide with the 25th Anniversary. It gave the opportunity for John Young to make a retirement presentation to Mike on behalf of NASA and JPL.
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This video of the events (9 minutes on Vimeo) courtesy of Mike Dinn. Recorded by Rebecca Dinn. Transfer and edit by Colin Mackellar. |
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John Young presents Mike with a model of DSS-43 as a retirement memento on behalf of JPL – at the Apollo 11 25th anniversary function at The Hellenic Club in Canberra, July 1994.
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Mike with the Moon rock presented by John Young. |
