Honeysuckle Creek: Construction

Construction

Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station (abbreviated as HSK) was built by the Australian Government between February 1965 and December 1966 for the Manned Space Flight Network. It cost around $A2,000,000 (in 1966 money) to build and had an annual running budget of $1,250,000.

Before the Tracking Station – the peace and quiet of the Australian bush.

This photo, by an unknown photographer, may have been taken during initial surveying of the site. The picture is looking at an azimuth bearing of 226 degrees 24 minutes as it is looking almost exactly at the location of the Coll Tower from the antenna.

Photo scanned by and info from Hamish Lindsay.


The antenna west base legs in place.	A medium shot of the X axis bearing being installed.


The X and Y axes have been built, and the parabolic dish support structure is being assembled. Hamish Lindsay writes – “These pictures were taken by Ken Lee and he gave me the 35mm negatives... probably taken in the latter part of 1965.”


The right hand photo from a 1966 NASA film shows the first two of the dish supports in place. These photos are stills from the Spacecraft Films DVD “1966 NASA Aeronautics and Space Reports” – with thanks to Spacecraft Films.

“I am standing on top of the antenna quadlegs at the very top of the antenna looking down on Ian Anderson installing cables for the Acquisition dish, not yet installed. In the background you can see the main building.

It is very early days, late in 1966, as the building contractor’s sheds are still in place, and the flags are not flying, so it’s probably before we received them.”

Photo and notes by Hamish Lindsay

Hamish Lindsay remembers –

“The original USB equipment and antenna servos were installed by Collins Radio and they had a shed put up beside the antenna they labelled ‘Casa de Collins’.”

Ray Cox, supervisor of the Collins Radio team that installed all the USB equipment, with his left hand on the ball tracker that controls the antenna movements. The station staff worked and trained with the Collins men.

Photo: Hamish Lindsay.

Honeysuckle was managed by the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland and was run by Standard Telephones & Cables Pty. Ltd. (and later Fairey Aust.) on behalf of the Commonwealth Department of Supply.

Engineers, technicians, computer specialists and many others were recruited to run the station. Around 90 people worked at Honeysuckle during the Apollo Program and a little more than a hundred during Skylab.

All of the equipment was shipped in from the US. (Being far from any Australian power supply, the station’s power was entirely 110V at 60Hz, ensuring interchangability with other NASA equipment.)

While the equipment came from NASA, the local team was responsible for running the station.

(Read the agreement between the US and Australian governments covering all US tracking stations in Australia here. – This link is to the 1970 agreement.)

Hamish Lindsay writes, “An aerial shot of HSK in 1966. I took this from a helicopter that was on a trial flight to see if it was practical to evacuate badly injured staff members from the site.”

The Honeysuckle Operations building, with the antenna up the hill just above it, shortly after construction.

The absence of Australian and US flags suggests it was taken before the official opening.

Photo by Hamish Lindsay, scan by John Saxon.

Another photo from before the opening.

Photo: Bruce Withey.

This view from the south shows the antenna and the main building surrounded by granite boulders and gum trees. The microwave tower linking Honeysuckle with Tidbinbilla is just visible at the left and of the main building.

Photo: Hamish Lindsay.

So who owned Honeysuckle?

Mike Dinn contributes –

Who owned Honeysuckle?

The Department of Supply (or Science, or Manufac Ind) owned it, being the Australian Govt Agency responsible, and so supplied the Director, Deputy and Admin/Finance officer.
Tom Reid owned it, because he was the Director, and didn’t care which Australian Govt agency might be nominally in charge at any time (Supply, Manufac Ins, Science, Science and Technology, Manufacturing Industry, CSIRO).
STC (or AWA or Fairey) owned it because all the staff (except 3 DOS) were their employees.
The staff (contractor and DOS) owned it, because it didn’t matter who the various public and private organisations responsible were. All THEY had to do well was to be a good conduit for pay and other money from NASA.
NASA owned it because they paid every dollar spent there.
Goddard owned it, because they were responsible for the engineering (Spec, installation, maintenance, modification) and operations logistics and training and budgets, etc.
The American Projects Branch, American Projects Division (Dept of Supply), Australian Space Office, being the day to day responsible org.
Houston owned it, because it was there to support their missions, and responded to it during missions.

Does anyone have other photos of Honeysuckle under construction?