Humans are en route to the moon for the first time in 54 years – and Australia’s Dish is tracking them

The telescope at Parkes, Australia, immortalised in the film The Dish, is tracking the Artemis II mission and sending data to Nasa. Photograph: CSIRO

On the day of the Apollo moon landing, 21 July 1969, wind gusts of up to 110km/h buffeted the Parkes radio telescope as it sat in a sheep paddock in regional New South Wales.

It is meant to shut down when the winds hit 35km/h, but the operators risked it all to help broadcast Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.