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It's the biggest event since sheep invented wool! Apollo 11's astronauts will walk on the moon -- and the 1,000-ton satellite dish in tiny, sheep-farming Parkes, Australia, will beam that historic first step around the globe. But as giddy citizens prepare for the moment when the entire world will depend on them, the dish flatlines. And its unconventional Aussie crew and its by-the-book NASA supervisor from the U.S. have very different ideas about how to fix it. A culture clash of cosmic proportions erupts in this fact-based tale of how the biggest televised event in history was almost not televised. The Dish, with Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld) and others in a skilled ensemble portraying a spirited array of techies and townies, "will send you to the moon and back laughing" (Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun) (from Amazon.com).

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Mike Dinn was born and educated in England. After graduating in Electrical Engineering (London) in 1955 he worked in British industry mainly on aircraft electronics. In 1960, he moved to Australia and was responsible for aircraft flight testing instrumentation with the Royal Australian Air Force. Mike moved to the Canberra Deep Space Tracking Station (Tidbinbilla – part of NASA/JPL’s Deep Space Network) in 1966 as Deputy Station Director in charge of Operations, his first mission being Surveyor.

In 1967 he took a similar position at Honeysuckle Creek, one of NASA’s three main communications facilities for the Apollo program and was actively involved in manned missions Apollo 7 to 13.

He returned to the DSN station during the building of the new 210 ft dish at Tidbinbilla and spent a year at JPL Pasadena (1972). This antenna supported Apollo 17 as its first task.

After a period in Australia’s Department of Defense, Mike returned to the Deep Space Station in 1983, becoming Director in 1988. NASA’s main missions during this period were Voyager, Magellan and Galileo, but the facility also supported Shuttle until the TDRSS spacecraft were in place. Mike retired in 1994 – on Apollo 11’s 25th anniversary. Mike was awarded two NASA Public Service Medals – in 1986 and 1995.