John Saxon
| First name | John |
|---|---|
| Last name | Saxon |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 2/27/1935 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1966 |
| Submitted by | John Saxon |
Story
I visited Australia from England a couple of times in the early 1960s living in Adelaide for about 2 years while working on one of the first Inertial Navigation systems for a very large missile (it was at the height of the cold war). We were working for an English company and launching the missile from V-Bombers over the Woomera rocket range. All very exciting and we had a great time in Australia. But eventually the project drew to its conclusion and I took another job in England
My Australian girlfriend Betty and I got married in England and we just couldn’t wait to get back!
In England I was delighted to hear that Australia was getting heavily involved in the Space Race by hosting NASA tracking stations. I was very lucky to be employed at the Honeysuckle Creek Manned Spaceflight station here in the ACT. The stations sponsored my migration.
A 30 year career at Honeysuckle, Tidbinbilla and in USA followed. It was the golden years of spaceflight in my opinion. The magnificent Apollo and Skylab manned spaceflight programs, and the early Deep Space missions to Mars (Viking), to the outer planets (Voyager and Pioneer) and to Venus, Comets and Asteroids etc. Every one was a first!
Along the way we lived the Australian family dream Ð 4 wonderful Children, and at time of writing, we have 10 Grand children. We love living in Canberra Ð one of the best kept secrets in Australia!
Now retired, we have a busy life style Ð Betty with constant craft work making presents for all the relatives and friends while waiting on me hand and foot Ð thank you so much my love. I am happy helping the local community with their computer problems and doing some training in that area as well.
So I have to say that the decision to emigrate was an easy one, the journey by air was routine and first impressions of Canberra were even better than my memories of Adelaide.
It was in some ways a wrench to leave the country of my birth and first 30 years, but I have never regretted it. After a lot of travel we know that we live in one of the nicest towns in the nicest country in the world. Thank you Australia!
John Saxon Ð 3 April 2008