Movies - The Dish

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	Movies - The Dish

:The Dish is also the common name for the radio telescope in the foothills above Stanford University. That Dish was built and is maintained by independent research institute SRI International (the former Stanford Research Institute).

The Dish is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

The radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, was used by NASA throughout the Apollo program to receive signals in the Southern Hemisphere, along with the NASA Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra.

The film tells a slightly fictionalised story of three Australian technicians (Neill, Harrington, Long) and their American NASA representative (Warburton). It had been decided quite late in the planning for Apollo 11 to include a television camera to broadcast the first steps on the Moon. Due to the timing of this, Australia would be the prime receiving station. The film tells of the three dealing with a variety of problems, from a power outage wiping their computer memory, to high winds that could cause the whole telescope to tip over. After the 11 crew decide to walk immediately after landing on the Moon, Parkes thinks they have lost their chance to be the prime receiving station. But due to delays on the Moon and problems with Goldstone they achieve the distinction at the last minute.

Although based on true events the film uses fictional characters and alters historical details for dramatic effect. NASA's Honeysuckle Creek and Goldstone stations both had the signal, but Parkes' signal was far superior and was used from soon after the beginning of the moon-walk.

It was written by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch and directed by Sitch.

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