Page 1219 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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On the day of the moon landing, Lindsay recalls this sense of anticipation:
Honeysuckle Creek had finished all the testing and setting up, begun over five hours earlier at 6 am, and went into the H-30 count, 30 minutes to the signal from the spacecraft appearing on the horizon with moonrise. While a freezing-cold westerly wind dragged sleet over the valley, the 26 metre antenna dropped down to the horizon and waited, servos whining. Everybody and everything in the station was ready waiting, waiting for the first signs of a signal from the lunar spacecraft.
I will go to the Honeysuckle Creek log. These were unofficial logs but they were very well kept, and people from the ACT or elsewhere can have a look at the honeysucklecreek.net website if they want to have a look at these particular logs. The times on the log were done in US time. They started comms at 0244, 100 megahertz on the lunar module, EVA, EKG and LBR. At 0251 the commander was on the lunar module porch. At 0254 the TV was turned on. At 0256 the commander was on the moon. The log gives the different frequencies used in the communications and goes on in detail about the loss of signal sometimes. It then goes on to 0349, when President Nixon was uplinked to the moon landing so that he could talk directly to the astronauts.
In 2011 Philip Clark received an ACT heritage grant for $14,900 to publish Acquisition! The Story of Orroral Valley Space Tracking Station. This stunning publication filled a unique gap in the ACT’s heritage and history by recording the story of Orroral tracking station, one of the largest in the world. It made photographs, information, material and interviews not available elsewhere widely accessible to the ACT community.
I can assure Ms Lawder that I am committed to supporting the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Apollo 11 mission. Applications for the 2018-19 round of the heritage grants program are now open. In this round projects that are preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing are a funding priority. The grants will provide $345,000 to identify and carry out projects that promote and conserve the heritage of the ACT. Grant applications from individuals and community groups are encouraged. Additionally, the proposed theme of next year’s Canberra and Region Heritage Festival is the 50th anniversary celebrations of Apollo 11.
Community projects that increase the amenity and awareness of heritage places are also a funding priority in the 2018-19 heritage grants program. Such places may include Honeysuckle Creek tracking station and Orroral Valley tracking station. Projects that achieve these aims through education of all ages, oral history, tourism, interpretation, digitalising records, and events will be afforded priority, especially if they relate to the 50th anniversary. The 50th anniversary can also be recognised through grants proposals involving community organisations and ACT government agencies.
Through collaboration with Craft ACT and the ACT parks and conservation service, we will be hosting a unique artist-in-residence program designed to celebrate this significant anniversary. Artists have found, time and again, that their practice is
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