Phil Youd is a little embarrassed when he recalls inviting Buzz Aldrin, the second person to ever set foot on the moon, to open the Carnarvon Space and Technology Museum in 2012.
Aldrin accepted the invitation. “He came out to open such a small museum, but I knew at the time it was a catalyst and that’s what it was all about, to get into something a bit bigger and more impressive,” says Phil who founded the museum and ran it until the end of May this year, when he retired.
“To be honest, thinking back, it was a bit embarrassing.”
Meeting Buzz Aldrin was scary. “Because I thought this guy’s like an international celebrity and I’m a nobody.
“Everyone said, ‘you’ve got to call him Dr Aldrin’ and there were all these protocols.
“And then his manager said to me that she and Buzz’s girlfriend were going to get their nails or hair done and they said ‘oh can you look after Buzz?’ and I said ‘sure’ and so I’m sitting at this restaurant just him and me and I thought ‘what do I talk to this guy about that he hasn’t talked about before or is sick of talking about’ so it was just pretty lame chit chat and anyway he said ‘look I’m gonna go up to the room and have a nap’.
“He was 82 then but very sprightly and super switched on and I said, ‘sure I’ll take you to your room’. As we opened the door I said, ‘look, I’ve just got one question’.
“I said, ‘what do I call you?’ And he said, ‘call me Buzz’. And that was it, he was Buzz from that moment on. Prior to that, there had been all the stress that had been pushed on me about you can’t call him this and don’t do that.
“And he was just a normal guy, although in saying that, it was very much a circus when he arrived. It was the biggest thing that Carnarvon’s ever seen and all the media were there.
“TV stations were doing live crosses, they were doing the weather live from up there and I did live interviews and all that sort of stuff.”
Phil says since then the museum building has been extended. The original building was probably a tenth or even smaller than it is now.
“It’s grown a lot over the years.
“And we’ve had, three astronauts. I found that the celebrities we’ve had are all really down-to-earth guys. I’m very privileged to have met them.
“In Andy Thomas’s case, who was the Australian-born astronaut, he came to the museum. He said, ‘when you’re over in the States, come and see us’.
“It just so happened that I did. And we went around to his local bar and had a couple of drinks with him, just a normal guy. And the same thing with Gene Cernan who was the last man to walk on the moon. He was very ill but he said ‘no I promised I’d come and do this so here I am’.
“As soon as he got off the plane we had to take him straight to the hospital for a blood transfusion.”
Phil is Perth based, but used to own the radio station in Carnarvon which is what led him to the museum.
Going to and from Carnarvon over the years he would look up the hill at the dish sitting there and wonder what its story was.
“I did a bit more research and found out about the NASA tracking station that was just down the road from there. I thought it was a good little story.”
Phil said the town needed something positive and the idea for the museum was born, but it wasn’t easy getting it up and running.
His initial approach to the shire wasn’t entirely embraced. While Phil wanted the museum to be up on the hill where the satellite dish is, the shire president wanted it in town.
“I said it’s got to be up there. You’ve got this huge dish sitting on top of the hill, people drive up to see what it’s all about and there’s nothing there.”
Phil approached a person who owned one of the buildings near the dish. It was much smaller than the building he had been hoping for, but that’s where the first incarnation of the museum began.
The museum now attracts nearly 30,000 visitors a year.
“It’s the number one tourist place in Carnarvon by a long shot.
“We’ve got a big dish on the hill and we built a full-size rocket that’s sitting up there as well. From the road, we’ve got a good entry statement and everyone, particularly the kids like space stuff.
“And because of everything to do with Apollo, retired people can relate to it because they grew up with it. It’s very large and it’s hands-on and interactive, a little bit of everything, spacey and techy type stuff.”
Phil says visitors can skip around and not read everything and be there for an hour.
“We’ve had other people who have been there on the complete other end of the scale, they’ve been there all day and then they come back the next day. We have a movie theatre with about 10 short movies. They’re all about six to 10 minutes long, so you could spend an hour in there easy. They’re all about the space side of things, the history of Carnarvon and the tracking station and OTC in Carnarvon that show the history of the place.
Phil says it’s now time for a break and he’s handing over the museum reins to Tim Shackcloth who was a caretaker there about 12 months ago.
“He’s got a passion for the museum and he’s keen as well.”
Once he’s had a break Phil will turn his attention to getting the dish back into operation for satellite tracking working with the ThothX group.
“I’m real keen to get that going so that’s where I’m focusing.
“I’m looking for an investor to basically convert the dish that’s up there into a deep space radar, which will track satellites in geostationary orbit.
“Potentially our main client would be the American government. The Australian government is also in the mix. They basically want to know what satellites are above. From Carnarvon, you could see across to Africa, and then right across through India, China, and all up, almost to Russia. It’s a really good spot for this technology.”
There’s one site already running in Canada and another being developed in Portugal.
Editor’s note: Have a Go News joined the celebrations for the opening of the space museum in July 2012 and featured Buzz Aldrin and Phil Youd on the cover.
