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December 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission, the
first crewed spacecraft to orbit the Moon. Honeysuckle Creek's 26m
antenna, together with a 26m antenna at Tidbinbilla, were key elements
of the tracking station network supporting the mission. However,
Honeysuckle Creek had been having a problem in the antenna feedcone
that produced random bursts of noise on either side of the uplink
signal. A high level decision was made to take Honeysuckle Creek "off
air" for a couple of days while Apollo 8 was on its way to the moon to
pull the feedcone apart and smooth and coat all the flanges in the
waveguide -- enabling trouble-free support for the rest of the mission.
More details of the mission, and the role of the
Honeysuckle Creek tracking station, are available from
the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station website. (Image credit:
Alan Foster and honeysucklecreek.net)
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