Page 1218 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA. By 1967 three of these new tracking stations were located in the ACT. As we have heard, these were Tidbinbilla tracking station, now called the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex; Honeysuckle Creek tracking station for MSFN, the manned spaceflight network; and Orroral Valley tracking station, which is no longer active, for STADAN, the space tracking and data acquisition network.
Honeysuckle Creek tracking station played a pivotal role in the Apollo 11 moon landing, most notably broadcasting the first images of the event to the world. Footage of Neil Armstrong’s first steps was relayed to the Honeysuckle Creek tracking station through a lunar camera. That footage was then filmed from a monitor using a standard camera and was able to be broadcast around the globe.
What often is not talked about is the event support done by the Postmaster-General’s Department across Australia. Indeed, my father played a vital role in that. He was in charge of the communications cable from Honeysuckle Creek to Deakin and then on to NASA. I was proud to have the opportunity to join him at the console for the moon landing. It was a very proud moment. In appreciation of the work that he did, he was presented with the Apollo achievement award, which I now table for the Assembly. I present the following paper:
Apollo Achievement Award—Walter Neville Gentleman, presented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
It was fantastic for a young person to be involved in that.
The Tidbinbilla tracking station, too, was important to the mission, acting as a wing station to Honeysuckle Creek. To this day Tidbinbilla tracking station, now CDSCC, continues to capture vital information on missions in deep space. Of course, no space flight mission carrying a person would have been possible without the ground-breaking work of the Orroral Valley tracking station, which was the largest tracking station of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
All three of the ACT’s tracking stations are a reminder of the important role played by the territory in this industry and in this history. Even those stations which have been decommissioned tell the story of our contribution to space exploration and missions, including the people on board. Modern space exploration saw the ACT participate in remarkable advances in a field of technology that united humanity.
In 2016 the ACT Heritage Council recognised the ACT’s contribution by heritage listing Honeysuckle Creek tracking station and Orroral Valley tracking station. These important places are now recognised and protected under the ACT heritage legislation.
The ACT government recognises the ongoing contribution of those who worked in the space tracking industry to the ACT and our region. The Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate values the guidance and enthusiasm of Philip Clark, Hamish Lindsay and others who continue to volunteer their time and knowledge to projects and events related to the space tracking history of the ACT.
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