Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station Print Page

Artworks and signage commissioned by the ACT Government mark the site of the decommissioned NASA headquarters and radar dish that received the famed footage of Armstrong’s Apollo Moon Walk. The tracking station was opened on 17 March 1967 and would remain in operation as both a Manned Flight Space Station and Deep Space Station until it was closed in November 1981.

To support the Apollo Space Program, NASA’s Manned Space Flight Network based at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, commissioned three 85 foot (26 metre) antennas which were equally spaced around the world. These stations were at Goldstone in California, Fresnedillas near Madrid in Spain and Honeysuckle Creek in the ACT.

The Honeysuckle Antenna was officially opened on the 17^th March 1967. The end of an era came in 1981 when Honeysuckle Creek was closed. Economics and Honeysuckle’s isolated location meant that it made sense to consolidate the work at the Deep Space Station at Tidbinbilla. The antenna was dismantled and moved to Tidbinbilla, where it became Deep Space Antenna 46.

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