Not one but two Aussie dishes were used to get the TV signals back from the Apollo 11 moonwalk

The Conversation (Australia) ^ | 19th July 2019 | John Sarkissian

[naturalman1975]

Obviously the moon landing was overwhelmingly an American achievement - but Australians are proud - and I think rightly so - of Australia's involvement in the Apollo 11 mission and in bringing those iconic moments to the eyes of the world.

[Gay State Conservative]

A nurse I worked with years ago had a husband who was a civilian employee of the US Defense Department. He was a communications specialist who spent lots of time at Exmouth,Western Australia...she'd refer to it as "Northwest Cape".

I learned later that it was an important location for huge satellite dishes,etc.

[SuperLuminal]

Wow! Not a single mention of Disney... {:-)

[null and void]

Does two antennas mean two sets of tapes?

Asking for a FRiend who still mourns the loss of the “only” high quality tape of the original signal...

[Tax-chick]

The earth is big, and space is even bigger. It’s not at all surprising that Australia’s participation was essential.

My daughter Elen, USMC, is currently in the Northern Territories doing exercises with the Australian Marines. When she gets back to Okinawa, she’ll tell us about all the cool plants and wildlife she saw.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Did somebody say Australian dish...???

http://beauty-around.com/en/tops/item/815-most-beauty-australian-womenM

[mrsmith]

Yeah, this is cool.
All Australia was “cool” back then.

[naturalman1975]

Believe me, people have looked very hard for any footage remaining in Australia and some has been found. The author of this article, John Sarkissian recovered some of it:-

'Lost' Footage of First Moonwalk to Screen in Australia

I believe that footage is in the hands of other experts now trying to further enhance it.

[null and void]

Thanks

[Gay State Conservative]

All Australia was “cool” back then.

Anyone who's ever been to a town called Broken Hill,as I have,knows that that's not true. Just think of the "Bruces" sketch of Monty Python:

"It's hot enough to boil a monkey's bum".

[ameribbean expat]

https://soperth.com.au/john-glenn-saw-perth-as-city-of-lights-14525/

[mrsmith]

All right, but it was considered ‘socially’ cool for several years in the US.

[Major Matt Mason]

Obviously, the Aussies must have been a bunch of sexist, racist Nazis to involve themselves with a U.S. moonwalk. /s

[BipolarBob]

Looky heah, I came to this thread to just better understand important historical space data and YOU post this . . . whoa did you check out #3? I got sidetracked. I’ve got some moral outrage building up but . . . . ah nevermind. I’ll give you a pass.

[gov_bean_ counter]

😂

[Ezekiel]

An estimated 600 million people, one-sixth of the world’s population at the time, watched the historic Apollo 11 moonwalk live on TV. At the time it was the greatest television audience in history. As a proportion of the world’s population, it has not been exceeded since.

One-sixth?! It must have had to do with the gravity of the situation.

[Paladin2]

Thanks!

Finally someone had put this info into a proper perspective...

[Waverunner]

My dad was a machunust in the model shop at Radiation Inc. in Melbourne Fl. They built a large number of telemetry dishes for NASA and other government agencies. He got one of my uncles a job as an installer. My uncle went to Alaska, Hawaii, and Africa to install very large dishes. One of the biggest collections was in Rosman NC for collecting soviet signals. The cray salesman told me it had one of the largest collections of cray installed anywhere. When it was shut down, I went to the gate, told them about my Dad working for radiation. they let me walk out among the old dishes, and about 2/3rds were built in melbourne fl. We moved to fl in 1961, when my dad went to work building dishes. I grew up watching mercury, gemini, and apollo launches, plus all the satellite and test launches. We would get a break in school to go out into the playground and watch launches. great times.

[Larry Lucido]

Vegemite and barbecued shrimp?

J/k

[Ezekiel]

A nurse I worked with years ago had a husband who was a civilian employee of the US Defense Department. He was a communications specialist who spent lots of time at Exmouth,Western Australia...she'd refer to it as "Northwest Cape".

I learned later that it was an important location for huge satellite dishes,etc.

Interesting that you brought up Exmouth, because it's the location of the largest Star of David on earth.

The base is the new home of the highly observant Space Surveillance Telescope:

The SST is notable in the number of observations it makes and is currently listed by the Minor Planet Center as the world record holder for making the most observations in a single year. In its peak year so far (2015) it made a record 6.97 million observations, significantly more than any other telescope, including Pan-STARRS which is currently in second place, having recorded 5.25 million observations in its best year so far (2014).[12]

Space Surveillance Telescope

Department of Defence Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Leo Davies said the telescope would increase the capacity to detect and track objects in space to manage threats, including space debris, and predict and avoid potential collisions.

Exmouth telescope facility takes next step 22 May 2019