BAS Observer November 2017

12 BAS OBSERVER camera could be then be focused on the satellite. Australia boasted five initial Moonwatch groups (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Woomera and Perth) – the first citizen scientists of the Space Age. Members of a South African Moonwatch group keep an eye out for satellites during the 1 9 50s. Similar groups were active across Australia. ( Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Archives ) NASA takes over When NASA was formed in July 1 9 58, it assumed control of these original tracking stations. By 1 9 70, Australia was home to the largest number of NASA stations outside the USA, hosting facilities for its orbital satellite, ‘manned’ space flight and deep-space tracking networks. These facilities, managed and staffed by Australians, made significant contributions to the early exploration and utilisation of space, particularly the Apollo lunar program. Television coverage of Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon came to the world through the NASA Honeysuckle Creek tracking station in the ACT (with the rest of the television during the Apollo 11 mission relayed via the CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope). Although advances in technology eventually rendered most of the Australian tracking stations obsolete, the NASA Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla, near Canberra, continues to play a major role in the The Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. ( Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech )