[SPACE TRACKING / RADIO ASTRONOMY] Dedication of Tidbinbilla 64 metre antenna 13th April, 1973.

[s.l. : s.n., 1973]. Small oblong quarto photograph album (205 x 260 mm), spiral-bound navy blue pebbled cloth over boards, upper board lettered in gilt ‘Dedication of Tidbinbilla 64 metre antenna 13th April, 1973’; [12] b/w photographs and [1] colour photograph in uniform 150 x 170 mm format mounted recto only, with printed captions below each image; the binding and contents are in pristine condition.

A rare album of photographs commemorating the dedication of the NASA antenna at Tidbinbilla in the A.C.T. in April 1973. The album was privately prepared – likely in very limited numbers – and was presumably made for distribution to a small number of dignitaries and/or scientists connected with the occasion. Trove locates no other example; in fact, the album appears to be completely unrecorded. 

The NASA 64-metre deep space antenna at Tidbinbilla was constructed by Collins Radio between 1969 and 1972. It was given the Indigenous name “Ballima”, meaning “very far away”. The antenna was dedicated by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on 13 April 1973; however, it had already been used to support the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.