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Hamish Lindsay and some of his essays. |
Hamish Lindsay (1937 – 2022) played a key role in preserving the history of Australia’s space tracking. Those who care about this history owe him a debt of gratitude.
Hamish’s book, Tracking Apollo to the Moon (published in 2001) was the first comprehensive telling of Australia’s role in the space program written by a participant. It was deservedly acclaimed by people such as Christopher Columbus Kraft and Jerry Bostick.
One frustration Hamish found with publishing a book was that much material had to be left out. When I started this website in 2003, Hamish generously offered to share his research (as well as many, many wonderful photos which would not display well in a book).
A note about Hamish’s sources:
Hamish drew on many sources, including interviews with key players, mission reports, and other books. Since he was not writing for an academic readership, sections of the text he quotes (e.g. astronauts’ recollections of missions) are not always precisely attributed. If you spot a quote and know where it is from, I’d be glad to add that reference.
PDF versions of some essays:
More recently, Glen Nagle, science communicator and veteran of the Canberra Deep Space Communication Centre, has transformed many of Hamish’s key essays into beautifully-presented PDF files. Those files are listed in the table below.
A note about viewing the PDF files:
These would be ideal for printing, or viewing on a tablet. For best results, save the PDF to your device (and view with a PDF reader such as Preview on Apple), and then the links will open separately in your web browser.
A note about versions:
The PDF versions are based on Hamish’s essays html (web) versions. Glen has enhanced them with not only terrific formatting, but also with additional photographs and illustrations. In addition, from time to time, I add extra material to the web versions. The result is that the web and PDF versions have a common source but are not identical in their content.
– Colin Mackellar.
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Hamish Lindsay signing a copy of his book at CDSCC (Tidbinbilla) on 13 April 2013. Photo: Colin Mackellar. |
