The Dish

On July 1969, six hundred million people gathered around television sets around the world to watch Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon. A little known fact is that those famous images were beamed from a radio telescope in the middle of a sheep paddock in New South Wales, Australia! Based on a true story, the film follows the Australian/American team behind this historic broadcast capturing the excitement. NASA originally intended Australian radio telescopes to be used as 'backup' to the prime receiver in Goldstone, California. But a last-minute flight schedule change meant that telescopes in the southern hemisphere would be in a position to receive the famous images. A few days before the launch, NASA representative Al arrives at the site. His three Australian colleagues struggle to accept his fastidious ways and tension develops. Then a few days after Apollo XI's lift-off and its journey towards the moon, disaster strikes at the Dish ... (press kit)