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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 05 July 2023. | News & Events 08 July 2023.

Featured for July 2023

Right: The Honeysuckle Creek antenna tracks Eagle at Tranquility Base on Monday July 21 1969 as the station prepares to receive live television from the lunar surface.
Left: Part of the Honeysuckle team, just after Apollo 11.

Photos: Hamish Lindsay.

For more, see the Apollo 11 section.

Image from the 2023 HSK calendar (on my personal website).

Radio Astronomer Dr David Jauncey has had a long history of working with Tidbinbilla in VLBI – Very Long Baseline Interferometry.

In this April 2023 interview, he speaks glowingly of the partnership of everyone at Tidbinbilla. A story worth telling.

Watch here. 54 minutes.

Stan Anderson tells the story of the ARIA – the Apollo Range Instrumented Aircraft – in this 2009 interview.

Stan Anderson also spoke at the Apollo 11 40th anniversary luncheon in Canberra on 21st July 2009.

He is introduced by Patrick Helean. With special thanks to Geoff Crane for this footage.

For the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Skylab Orbital Workshop, the Space Association of Australia’s President Peter Aylward organised several video interviews with Dr. Joe Kerwin.

Dr Kerwin, one of the first Scientist Astronauts, flew on the first manned Skylab mission. He was later the NASA Senior Scientific Representative to Australia.

At various times, Mike Dinn, John Saxon and Colin Mackellar participated in these unique interviews which have now been posted on the Space Association’s Youtube channel. Fascinating and enjoyable.

Direct links to Youtube: Interview 1, Interview 2, Interview 3.

A most unwelcome update (Space Association of Australia Facebook), 5th July 2023, with the news that Peter Aylward has died in Melbourne after a brave battle with cancer. Many will mourn him – and will miss his friendship and great enthusiasm for space exploration and space history.

Peter, and fellow members of the SAA, visited Tidbinbilla in February 2023. From left: Michael Abdilla, Peter Aylward, Mike Dinn, John Saxon. Photo: Betty Saxon, taken at the Southern Cross Club in Woden.

Vale Ian Grant.

We’re very sorry to hear that Ian Grant, Honeysuckle’s last Station Director, died in Sydney in early June.

A native of Glasgow, Ian served as Deputy Station Director at Honeysuckle Creek 1968 – 1972, and as Station Director from 1978 until the station’s closure at the end of 1981.

After a short period at Tidbinbilla, including being acting Director for a period while Tom Reid was away, Ian was appointed as Station Director of Orroral Valley from 1982 until that station closed in 1985. As Orroral’s equipment was being dispersed, Ian arranged for the Baker-Nunn Camera to be donated to the University of Wollongong, and the 26 metre antenna to be given to the University of Tasmania for radio astronomy.

Ian is remembered as an excellent engineer who was immensely proud of the role he was summoned to play in space exploration.

We plan to expand Ian’s page on the website soon.

Photo: Hamish Lindsay.

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

Also see some related (and some unrelated!) video at vimeo.com/honeysuckle.

Some of them are collected here.

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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.

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

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, 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 Creek: 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.


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.

(If you’ve seen the much-loved 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.

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