The Woomera Space Communications Centre' was located in this isolated area near a dried up salt lake 14 miles south west of the Woomera village in the far north of South Australia.
My thanks go to the NASA jet propulsion Laboratory who gave me permission to use the copyright on Memorandum JPL No 33-223 for pictures and story of this historical installation as it was in the early days of 1958. The Deep Space Network was one of twelve similar ground stations around the world at that time providing precision tracking and telemetry data from Earth satellites.
The Australian and United States Government had entered into a co-operative arrangement to establish and operate stations of the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility ( DSIF ) in Australia. Work started on the project in 1958 in a bowl shaped area of terrain free from electrical, commercial radio and TV interference. The Baker-Nunn-Camera was installed during the 1957/1958 International Geophysical Year and that time was one of the world's most accurate optical tracking instruments. The 85 foot diameter antenna and support building which contain the hydro-mechanical equipment for the antenna and radio transmitter are shown in the following pictures.
The DSIF station at Woomera had communication with other DSIF stations at Tidbinbilla, Gove WA, Orarral Valley ACT, Morree, Darling Downs Queensland, Red Lake Woomera and other facilities around the world.
I start off my display with a photo of the main office and dish complex as it was in 1958. All of these envelopes were made to commemorate the launches of early projects such as the Mercury Redstone launches of the Sparta program, the Apollo 8 and 12 and the Mariner Venusian and Martian probes and the Ranger Spacecraft. Others were post canceled at some of the tracking stations within that network. There are many more from all over the world but these are just a small selection of the Australian variety produced. The Baker Nunn Camera, and Radar Dishes appear prominently on these early envelopes.
Back to Commemorative Envelopes pages.