The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Earth station in Australia near

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. It was instrumental to the

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

. The station was opened in 1967 and closed in 1981.

History

Honeysuckle Creek with a 26 metre dish is renowned as the station which received and relayed to the world the first televised footage of astronaut Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon in July 1969. Apart from television pictures, Honeysuckle Creek and

Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) is a satellite communication station, part of the Deep Space Network of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located at Tidbinbilla in the Australian Capital Territory. Opened in 196 ...

Tidbinbilla Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a protected area, on the fringe of Namadgi National Park. Tidbinbilla is a short drive from the capital city of Australia, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. The nature reserve consists of a large val ...

had communication and telemetry contact with the ''Eagle'' lunar and ''Columbia'' command modules. Much of this was dramatised as involving

Parkes Observatory Parkes Observatory is a radio astronomy observatory, located north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It hosts Murriyang, the 64 m CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope also known as "The Dish", along with two smaller radio telescopes. T ...

in the 2000 Australian film ''

The Dish ''The Dish'' is a 2000 Australian historical drama, historical comedy-drama film that tells the story of the Parkes Observatory's role in relaying live television of humanity's first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. It wa ...

''. In fact, Parkes received pictures only came into play later in the moon landing. Six hours after landing, the first steps on the Moon were transmitted from Honeysuckle Creek, after an initial attempt to use the pictures from Goldstone had been hampered by operator error and poor scan conversion settings. Although the Parkes antenna was more powerful than Honeysuckle, the angle of its dish – at a lowermost pitch of 30 degrees and buffeted by wind gusts up to 100 km/h – was not in line to receive signals during the first seven minutes of the moon landing. Honeysuckle Creek signals were sent direct to

Overseas Telecommunications Commission The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) was established by Australia in August 1946. It inherited facilities and resources from Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA) and Cable & Wireless, and was charged with responsibility for all ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

via Williamsdale and Red Hill in Canberra. Working for NASA, Charlie Goodman selected the audiovisual feeds from Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes for worldwide broadcasts. The Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla antennas were built and run by NASA, but staffed by Australians. It was the policy of the Australian Government that the director had to be a citizen or permanent resident of Australia. When Apollo missions ended in 1972, Honeysuckle Creek was redirected to the new

Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...

program. As well, it was used for experiments with Apollo scientific stations placed on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

astronauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

. At the end of the

program in 1974, Honeysuckle Creek was connected to the Deep Space Network with the designation Deep Space Station 44. Honeysuckle Creek closed in December 1981. The 26m antenna was relocated nearby to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at

, and redesignated Deep Space Station 46. The antenna was decommissioned in late 2009. In May 2010, the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics declared the antenna a Historical Aerospace Site. The antenna remains in perpetuity as a historical site at Tidbinbilla. Today, at Honeysuckle Creek, the concrete foundation is the only remnant of the tracking station. An outdoor display was added in 2001. Honeysuckle Creek is considered the

geographical centre In geography, the centroid of the two-dimensional shape of a region of the Earth's surface (projected radially to sea level or onto a geoid surface) is known as its geographic centre or geographical centre or (less commonly) gravitational centre. In ...

of the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

Climate

The climate of Honeysuckle Creek, as to be expected of its much greater elevation, is significantly cooler than that of Canberra. Notwithstanding, its maximum temperatures are warm relative to elevation, due to the fact that it still lay on the

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

(eastern) side of the

Brindabella Range The Brindabella Range, commonly called The Brindabellas or The Brindies, is a mountain range located in Australia, on a state and territory border of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The range rises to the west of C ...

. Annually, it receives 14.4 snowy days on average.Annual snow days sorted in descending order of average occurrence
Australian Weather News

Gallery

File:ABC Apollo 11.ogv,

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

report on the role of the

Parkes radio telescope Parkes Observatory is a radio astronomy observatory, located north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It hosts Murriyang, the 64 m CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope also known as "The Dish", along with two smaller radio telescopes. T ...

and the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, a week before the Moon landing File:Hsk letter.jpg, Copy of telex sent to Director of Honeysuckle Creek tracking station File:Apollo Road in Tennent, ACT.jpg, Apollo Road, the road to Honeysuckle Creek

References

{{Reflist

External links

A Tribute to Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station
website

Apollo program facilities Articles containing video clips Earth stations in the Australian Capital Territory NASA facilities in Australia NASA radio communications and spacecraft tracking facilities 1967 establishments in Australia 1981 disestablishments in Australia

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links