One Small Step - The Australian Story

I just finished watching a YouTube link that Colin Mackellar passed to me.
It is about the Apollo 11 Moon landing and the part that Australia played in receiving those first pictures of the stepping off of the lunar lander.
I still have tears in my eyes as I write this.
I had watched those first steps on my own black and white TV while being stationed at Andrews Air Force base in the Naval Air Reserve.
So many memories.
Thanks much Colin.
- LRK -

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Hi Larry and Dave,

Think you would enjoy it.

I had the privilege of helping the producers with content and the story.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF04z8L0WJg>

with best wishes

Colin
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If you have not already had a chance to watch this moving production, I hope you find the time to do so.
It is 54:49 minutes and great behind the scenes action.
This story is told by the folks that were there as it happened.
Thanks much to the crews at the tracking stations in Australia.
- LRK -

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF04z8L0WJg
Uploaded by freehandtv on Dec 5, 2011

Forty years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, the one-hour documentary One Small Step: The Australian Story explores the front-line role Australian radio astronomers and technicians performed in bringing to the world a 'giant leap for mankind'.
On July 20th 1969, Australia had just twelve and a half million inhabitants and was known more for its kangaroos than its space program. But the moment Neil Armstrong planted the first human footstep on the moon all that changed.

With host Peter FitzSimons, we meet some of the characters who were directly involved in bringing live pictures from the moon to the rest of the world, and hear about the dramas of this most remarkable day.
Their stories are interwoven with snapshots of Australia from July 20th 1969 as we relive the day leading up to one of the most significant events in this country's brief history.

It was Australia that beamed the clearest pictures 'live from the moon' to the rest of the planet and so were the first to witness this momentous footstep. This was no ordinary television signal. After travelling 384,000km, it would inspire Australians from all walks of life and bring a sense of future possibilities to the nation.

Neil Armstrong's "one small step" was the giant leap that put man on the moon and Australia on the map.
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Maybe after you watch the YouTube link you would like to learn more about the tracking stations in Australia.
- LRK -

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http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/index.html
A Tribute to
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station
Canberra, Australia
and all who worked there

http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/about.html
Acknowledgments and info about this site
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About this website

This site is an ongoing work by Colin Mackellar as a tribute to the pioneering work of all who were involved with NASA’s Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station.

I was too young to be personally involved in Apollo (if you look at the photo on the opening page, that’s me in the foreground – standing outside the Honeysuckle gate in 1971. I was nearly 15). But I have always been very interested in both astronomy and manned space exploration. (On holidays our family will often just “happen” to find ourselves at places like Honeysuckle, Tidbinbilla, Parkes or Siding
Spring.)

During the Apollo Program, both Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla were household names in Australia (as was the Parkes Radio Telescope) and I followed any media references to them closely.

It is surprising that there is not more information readily available about Honeysuckle (other than the tremendous resources of Hamish Lindsay’s book and Mike Dinn and John Saxon’s websites).
http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/the_book/main.html
http://members.pcug.org.au/~mdinn/apollomem/index.htm
http://www.jsaxon.org/

For that matter, there is very little on the Internet about Tidbinbilla, Goldstone or Madrid from the Apollo days. This website is the beginning of an attempt to help correct that.
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It was moving to watch the Moon landing on my BW TV and it was very moving to watch again from Australia by way of the YouTube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF04z8L0WJg

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

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http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/
       Mission Overview
The mission plan of Apollo 11 was to land two men on the lunar surface
and return them safely to Earth. The launch took place at Kennedy
Space Center Launch Complex 39A on July 16, 1969, at 08:32 a.m. EST.
The spaccraft carried a crew of three: Mission Commander Neil
Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module
Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. The mission evaluation concluded that all
mission tasks were completed satisfactorily.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight which landed the first humans, Neil
Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr, on Earth's Moon on July 20,
1969, at 20:17:39 UTC. The United States mission is considered the
major accomplishment in the history of space exploration.

Launched from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 in Merritt
Island, Florida on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission,
and the third lunar mission, of NASA's Apollo program. The crew
consisted of Armstrong as Commander and Aldrin as Lunar Module Pilot,
with Command Module Pilot Michael Collins. Armstrong and Aldrin landed
in the Sea of Tranquillity and became the first humans to walk on the
Moon on July 21. Their Lunar Module, Eagle, spent 21 hours 31 minutes
on the lunar surface, while Collins remained in orbit in the
Command/Service Module, Columbia.[2] The three astronauts returned to
Earth on July 24, landing in the Pacific Ocean. They brought back 47.5
pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar rocks.

Apollo 11 fulfilled U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching
the Moon before the Soviet Union by the end of the 1960s, which he had
expressed during a 1961 mission statement before the United States
Congress: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the
Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."[3]

Six additional Apollo missions flew to the Moon and five landed
between 1969 and 1972.
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http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-11/apollo-11.html
Apollo-11 (27)

Pad 39-A (5)
Saturn-V AS-506 (6)
High Bay 1
MLP 1
Firing Room 1
Crew:

Neil A. Armstrong (2), Commander
Edwin E. Aldrin (2), Jr., Lunar Module Pilot
Michael Collins (2), Command Module Pilot
Backup Crew:

James Lovell (3), Backup Commander
Fred Haise (0), Backup Lunar Module Pilot
William A. Anders (1), Backup Command Module Pilot

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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