Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek and Orroral valley facilities honoured by AIAA

 The CDSCC with some locals (CSIRO)

The AIAA has honoured the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla, and former NASA tracking stations at Honeysuckle Creek and Orroral Valley as sites of Historic Aerospace Significance.

AIAA President Dave Thompson has unveiled a historic marker as part of the public ceremony on May 25th, 2010 at Tidbinbilla.

This now joins Woomera to be the second AIAA recognised site of Historic Aerospace Significance in Australia.

For the AIAA press release, go here.
For CSIRO coverage, go here.

New Dishes at Tidbinbilla

NASA's CDSCC (Photo from NASA)

Both the ABC and Sydney Morning Herald are reporting that NASA is planning to build 4 new antennas at the Canberra Deep Space Communications complex at Tidbinbilla, just out of Canberra.

The first two 34m dishes are planned to be up and running by 2015, in time to receive data for NASA's Pluto mission.

The antennas will cost around AUD$50 Million each.

Some great news for Oz.