NASA's Deep Space Network: Our Link to Spacecraft around the Solar System
Aug. 18 & 19
The NASA Deep Space Network, or DSN, is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe, as well as selected Earth-orbiting missions. First utilized in January of 1958 to track the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, the DSN currently consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the world: at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This strategic placement permits constant observation of spacecraft as the Earth rotates, and helps to make the DSN the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world.
Joseph Statman, DSN Technical Staff