The Final Orbit - Apollo and Space Shuttle: Australia's Orroral Valley Space Tracking Station and the End of Ground-based Manned Space Flight Tracking

This book provides a unique opportunity to look inside the world of manned space flight tracking through the eyes of a man who was at the heart of it for over twenty years.

It combines the personal touch of a memoir with the presentation of a wealth of technical information, which is not available anywhere else. What is presented here preserves history, and ensures that the remarkable achievements of the tracking of manned space flight are remembered.

Discover how manned spaceflights were tracked from ground stations after the closure of the Manned Space Flight Network in 1972, and gain an insight into how the tracking processes grew and evolved through a review of some early history of the field.

The book is extensively illustrated, with preserved documents as well as photographs from the history of the station.

“Since Orroral Valley became operational as a STADAN station in 1965, The station has supported a variety of NASA and international space programs including NIMBUS, ISEE, ASTP, OAO, Skylab Re-entry, ALSEP and Shuttle. This support has been of the highest caliber… It has been a great pleasure having the Orroral station as part of the STDN and will miss the excellent support she has given. My personal thanks for a job well done.”

Robert O. Aller
Associate Administrator for Space Tracking And Data Systems.
21 December 1984

Philip Clark came to Orroral Valley Space Tracking Station at the end of 1966 as a technician. When the station closed in 1985 he was the Senior Operations Supervisor (SOS). After leaving the Spacetracking industry, he was engaged in senior technical, engineering and research positions in government and private industry. In 1993 he was awarded a National Medal of Australia for Service. In 1999 he gained a Master of Science degree from the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. He maintains an interest in amateur radio, through which he has been one of few people to speak both with Russian Cosmonauts on the USSR 'MIR' space station and USA astronauts on the Space Shuttle 'Columbia' from his car! He is the author of a number of books, technical manuals, and of articles for technical magazines. At the time of writing he is retired.