Extract from ABC News
Artemis II sent back never-before-seen images of the Moon as it passed by. (Supplied: NASA)
In short:
The Parkes Observatory, made famous in the 2000 film The Dish, has helped track Artemis II on humanity's furthest journey around the Moon.
It continues the observatory's legacy, after it assisted the Apollo project in the 1960s and 70s.
What's next?
The Dish will play an increasingly important role as space operations ramp up in the future.
More than 50 years on from assisting the Apollo missions, the CSIRO Parkes Observatory is continuing its lunar legacy with Artemis II's historic mission.
The mission is humanity's first journey toward the Moon since 1972, travelling further from Earth than any human has ever been before and capturing never-before-seen footage of the far side of the Moon.
In the New South Wales Central West, the radio telescope made famous in the classic Australian movie The Dish has been tracking the spacecraft on its lunar journey.
The Dish featured Sam Neill (centre) and detailed the role the Parkes Observatory played in the first Moon landing. (Supplied: Working Dog Productions)
"During the close approach to the Moon, Parkes was tracking it," CSIRO operations scientist John Sarkissian said.
"We were able to see the spacecraft disappear behind the Moon.
"It was really fascinating to see the signal suddenly drop out and then reappear about 40 minutes later."
Parkes Observatory's radio telescope is among the facilities assisting with tracking Artemis II. (Supplied: John Sarkissian)
The Artemis operations are part of NASA's plans to put astronauts on the Moon in 2028, and potentially build a permanent lunar base in the future.
"There is going to be a lot of traffic," Mr Sarkissian said.
"With the increasing number of missions going to the Moon, [NASA] just don't have capacity to support that all the time.
"It gives them great confidence that if in the future they do need our support, we will be there and will give them world-class service."
John Sarkissian has assisted with tracking Artemis II from Parkes. (Supplied: John Sarkissian)
Over the course of the Artemis II mission, the Parkes Observatory has been assisting NASA's Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex and the Australian National University's Quantum Optical Ground Station.
The spacecraft is expected to land back on Earth on Saturday morning, Australian time.
Lunar legacy
The Dish — as it was known by locals long before the film — first assisted with tracking space missions in 1962, before playing a crucial role in the Apollo missions.
NASA diverted to Parkes Observatory's feed of the moon landing in 1969 after Canberra's Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station broadcast the first eight minutes. (ABC News)
In 1969, it assisted with beaming footage of a human's first walk on the Moon to more than 600 million people.
"We played vital roles in Apollo 11 … receiving the TV pictures of the famous moonwalk,"Mr Sarkissian said.
"For Apollo 13, we were able to receive their extremely weak signals coming from the crippled spacecraft.
"Mission Control was able to decipher the signals and figure out what was wrong and get the astronauts back safely."
The Parkes Murriyang Dish has been operating since 1961. (Supplied: CSIRO)
Mr Sarkissian said decades later, the telescope was capable of far more.
"We are able to do much, much more than we did back in the 60s and 70s with Apollo," he said.
"In the past you needed racks and racks of equipment with a lot of people on site.
"Nowadays our computing power is much more and during the tracking it was just me in the tower doing it."
In 2020, Wiradjuri elders gave the observatory's 64-metre telescope a traditional Indigenous name — Murriyang.
Inspiring the next generation
The first crewed Apollo mission took place in 1968, before the program came to an end in 1972.
The Artemis II mission is part of NASA's plans to put astronauts on the Moon for the first time since 1972. (Supplied: NASA)
The Artemis II mission is the first time astronauts have travelled to the Moon since then.
"[I spent] all of my adult life and a big chunk of my childhood daydreaming of the day we return to the Moon,"Mr Sarkissian said.
"Now it has finally arrived but it is not going to be one or two missions a year, it is going to be continuous missions."
Mr Sarkissian predicted the new space program would leave a similar legacy to Apollo.
"I remember watching the Apollo 11 moonwalk with my fellow first graders … it inspired an entire generation," he said.
"These missions will do the same with this new generation of school kids.
"It will inspire them to look up and want to get involved in science."
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