CSIRO’s Parkes telescope—for astronomy, but occasionally contracted for space tracking.

Apollo Moon-landing award for telescope engineer

Reference: 07/02

A former Officer-in-Charge at CSIRO's Parkes telescope is receiving an award for his role in the 1969 Moon landing.

19 January 2007

Long-time Parkes resident David Cooke was the senior receiver engineer at the telescope during the time of the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969.

He will receive one of the inaugural “Stars of Australia” awards on 27 January (26 January in Australia) at the Australia Day Gala event at the Hotel Derek in Houston. The awards will be presented by Captain Eugene Cernan, the Commander of Apollo 17.

Mr Cooke was the Officer-in-Charge of the Parkes Observatory from 1988 to 1993.

His role during the 1969 mission was to look after the receivers that capture the radio signals as they come in from space: to install them on the telescope, test them, and monitor their performance while the spacecraft approached the Moon and landed.

“When the tracking was over, I went outside and looked up at the Moon, and thought, ‘Wow, are there really people up there?’,” Mr Cooke says.

The awards have been initiated by the Australian American Chamber of Commerce, Houston, and the Western Australian Trade and Investment Office.

“All recipients will accept their awards on behalf of the teams of scientists and engineers who were involved with communications during the space program.”

They celebrate Australians and Americans whose notable achievements have arisen from the long connection between the two countries.

“The first people we are honouring are those who created the global telemetry and communications network that made communication with spacecraft possible,” Regional Director of the WA Trade and Investment Office in the USA, David Doepel, says.

The Australian-American collaboration during NASA’s space program of the 1960s and ‘70s used several Australian radio telescopes and tracking stations: Carnarvon, Muchea, Woomera, Parkes, Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla.

The other people to receive the Stars of Australia awards will be Thomas Reid, a former director of NASA tracking stations in Australia; Ed Fendell, the Head of Communications for the Apollo missions; and Ernest Randall, Network Controller for the Gemini and Apollo Programs.

All recipients will accept their awards on behalf of the teams of scientists and engineers who were involved with communications during the space program.

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