Unsung Aussies heroes who brought the moon landing to the world

The role Australia played in broadcasting the first moon landing to the world has been immortalised in national folklore, not least in the movie, The Dish.

But for some among us, it's no myth, just simple memory.

Ben Lam and David Cooke, both in their 80s now, were on the staff at Parkes Observatory when the radio telescope sent the iconic images of Neil Armstrong's first moonwalk around the globe.

Mr Lam was driving the telescope, while Mr Cooke was a control room engineer.

But neither of them were actually meant to be called upon.

Once the module landed on the moon's surface, the crew were supposed to sleep.

But Armstrong couldn't wait, and with NASA out of range, Australia's radio telescopes had to step in.

"We haven't got another chance, we've got to do it," Mr Lam said.

"We had this almighty wind, something shocking."

The telescope was fully tipped over to see the moon, when a series of strong wind gusts reaching 110km/hr hit.

The machine was operating well beyond its safety limits.

But the Parkes telescope was not the only Australian centre that contributed to the mission.

The signal from the moon was actually received first by the antenna at Honeysuckle Creek tracking station near Canberra, and by the Goldstone Centre in California.

Mike Dinn, who was Honeysuckle's deputy director during the moon landings, said as the Australian picture was "far superior" to the US one, it was Honeysuckle that broadcast the initial eight minutes of images from the moon.

"Australia saw it milliseconds before the rest of the world," he said.

But as the moon rose higher over the bigger Parkes telescope and its own pictures improved, the world stayed with the Central West NSW town for the next two-and-a-half hours.

Apollo 11 was not the only aerial mission the Australian facilities played a crucial role in.

When Apollo 13 - made famous in its own movie starring Tom Hanks - faulted in 1970, Australia carried out all the communications to bring the stricken craft home.

"'Houston, we have a problem', and I just pricked my ears up and then took over the operations," Mr Dinn said.

Ed Kruzins, the current director of Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex said half a century on, the benefits of the Apollo missions had left us with incredible benefits.

"Every day when you use your banking card, or you download from the TV, those come from communications satellites that were built from the Apollo era," he said.

"It goes further than that - the satellites we have for meteorological activities and weather. And every day when you drive to work, you're looking at you're GPS - all that technology has filtered from the Apollo era in the '60s."

Parkes is still playing its part in space exploration.

Scientists like John Sarkissian are now using the super-computers at the facility to search for extra-terrestrial life.

"Fingers crossed (we will) detect evidence of other civilisations elsewhere in the universe," he said.

Nine Special ‘Apollo 11’ will air on Tuesday, July 9, at 9.15pm