In 1937 Jean Burns was widely reported as Australia’s first woman parachutist — but the newspapers were out by nearly half a century. For six months in 1890, Valerie and Gladys Van Tassel — under the management of “Professor” Park Van Tassel, their supposed brother — caused a sensation with their dazzling parachute jumps from trapezes suspended beneath crude hot air balloons thousands of feet in the air. But along with the spectacle came scandal and tragedy whose mysteries endure to this day.

At the age of 17, Robert Brand did work experience at the Overseas Telecommunications Commission’s station in Paddington, where he played a small part in ensuring the television images of Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon were successfully seen around the world. On the 50th anniversary of that historic event, Robert sat down to talk about how the experience inspired him to spend half a century working in the space sector — and how in 1986 he saved the satellite that intercepted Halley’s Comet. See below for videos.

Just hours before Apollo 11 landed on the moon on 20 July 1969, young Australian pop star Cathy Wayne was shot dead on stage while performing as part of the troupe Sweethearts On Parade for American Marines in Vietnam. Yet Cathy hadn’t been killed by the enemy — she’d been gunned down by one of the very soldiers who she’d travelled half way around the world to entertain. But who shot Cathy and why?