DID YOU KNOW? The DSN received and replayed the first images of Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon in 1969
There are thousands of satellites and spacecraft whizzing around in the Solar System. But how do scientists communicate with them? This job largely belongs to the Deep Space Network (DSN), a complex array of giant radio antennae that canvas the cosmos to stay connected with spacecraft. Operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the DSN has been around since 1958, when radio tracking stations were installed in Nigeria, Singapore and California. In its debut mission, the network of dish-shaped antennae helped Earth-based controllers guide Explorer 1, the first military satellite, into orbit. Now the DSN is made up of 14 dish antennae at three stations that are spread 120 degrees apart around the globe – in Australia, the United States and Spain. Together, these sites completely cover the night sky, ready to exchange signals with spacecraft from anywhere in the Solar System – or beyond.