One Small Step - The Australian Story

Today on Far Future Horizons, in order to commemorate  Australia's major contribution to the Apollo Lunar Exploration Program  and as my own personal salute and tribute to my good friend Ralph Buttigieg (who got me into the whole business of blogging), I would like to present the documentary One Small Step - The Australian Story.

Forty-six years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, this one-hour documentary explores the front-line role Australian radio astronomers and technicians performed in bringing to the world Neil Armstrong’s "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."

On July 20th 1969, Australia had just twelve and a half million inhabitants and was known more for its kangaroos than its space program. But the moment Neil Armstrong planted the first human footstep on the moon all that changed.

With host Peter FitzSimons, we meet some of the characters who were directly involved in bringing live pictures from the moon to the rest of the world, and hear about the dramas of this most remarkable day. Their stories are interwoven with snapshots of Australia from July 20th 1969 as we relive the day leading up to one of the most significant events in this country's brief history.

It was Australia that beamed the clearest pictures 'live from the moon' to the rest of the planet and so were the first to witness this momentous footstep. This was no ordinary television signal. After travelling 384,000km, it would inspire Australians from all walks of life and bring a sense of future possibilities to the nation.

Neil Armstrong's   "one small step" was the giant leap that put man on the moon and Australia on the map.

To learn more about the tracking stations in Australia mentioned in this documentary visit the Tribute Page dedicated to the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station. This site is an ongoing work by Colin Mackellar as a tribute to the pioneering work of all who were involved with this NASA tracking station.

One Small Step - The Australian Story 

The Australian motion picture “The Dish” (2000) starring Sam Neill dramatizes the events covered in this documentary.

Poster of Australian motion picture “The Dish” (2000) starring Sam Neill

The Dish (2000) Trailer 

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