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NASA's Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was opened on this day in 1967.
The 85-foot (26 metre) antenna at Honeysuckle Creek, near Canberra,
supported space missions until the station closed in 1981, when it was
relocated to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla.
Honeysuckle Creek received and relayed to the world the first televised
footage of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon on 20 July 1969
and the first seven minutes of the moonwalk, before the moon had
risen above the 30-degree elevation limit of the larger Parkes telescope.
The image above shows the official party from the 1967 opening
moving from the antenna to the Operations Building.
From left to right:
Senator Denham Henty (Minister for Supply), Harold Holt (Prime Minister of Australia),
Robert Seamans (NASA Deputy Administrator), and
Bryan Lowe (Honeysuckle Creek Station Director).
Further information about the tracking station's history
is available from the
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station website
(Image credit: Australian News & Information Bureau, Hamish Lindsay collection, honeysucklecreek.net)
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