Overview

Revision as of 06:14, 30 May 2008

FPQ-6 Radar Antenna: Photo; Hamish Lindsay

This site complements the forthcoming book by Paul Dench and Alison Gregg; 'One giant leap for a town: Carnarvon and Apollo' . Both book and website will tell the extraordinary story of how Carnarvon (population 2500, in the remote northwest of Australia) became the location for the world's largest space tracking station outside mainland USA. Learn how and why this happened, and celebrate the work of the NASA Carnarvon Tracking Station (call-sign CRO), the OTC Satellite Earth Station (Carnarvon) (established to ensure reliable communications for CRO), the life and times of Carnarvon people during those exciting years, and brief histories of other Space projects that have taken place in Western Australia.

Public interest in Space research in Western Australia had grown from the early 1960s, spurred on by the work of the small Muchea Tracking Station near Perth and the excitement of seeing for the first time satellites orbiting overhead. On 20 February 1962 Perth achieved fame as 'The City of Light' when Astronaut John Glenn described seeing the lights of Perth left burning through the night to welcome him.

NASA's next generation of manned spaceflight projects required a more intense level of technical support from stations better suited to the orbital inclinations needed to send a spacecraft to the Moon. Carnarvon was ideally placed. In August 1962 NASA announced that work would begin immediately on establishing the Carnarvon Space Tracking Station to support its planned Gemini and Apollo missions. From 1963 until its closure in 1975 the Carnarvon Space Tracking Station supported a huge range of scientific and exploratory missions - manned and unmanned - through NASA's peak years of operations in the race to put a man on the Moon.

The southern end of the CRO site: At the top is the T&C building with the USB dish to its right and, further right facing south, the two Troposcatter dishes. In the centre, from the left, are the Power Station, UHF Command, and the SPAN facility. At the bottom right are the GRARR antennas with their colimation tower in the bottom right corner. To the north, off picture left, is the FPQ-6 radar.

Carnarvon's role in Space did not end there, however. In 1966 the Overseas Telecommunication Commision, Australia, had established the nearby OTC Station - Australia's first. Later it assumed a tracking role for the European Space Agency. Its last major function was the prime command role for the Giotto mission's rendezvous with Halley's Comet in March 1986. This station closed in 1987.

Since then Carnarvon Shire Council and other groups have worked together to convert the remaining OTC dishes and buildings to form the nucleus of the Western Australian Space Museum Carnarvon. Although this is still under development, it is hoped that it will eventually provide a full record of WA's significant involvement in space technology and exploration.

This overview written by Paul Dench & Alison Gregg

Contact the book authors ... mailto:info@carnarvonspace.com