Skip to main content

NASA has a new dish for talking to spacecraft in the far reaches of space

Deep Space Station 56, or DSS-56, is a powerful 34-meter-wide (112-foot-wide) antenna that was added to the Deep Space Network's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain in early 2021.
Deep Space Station 56, or DSS-56, is a powerful 34-meter-wide (112-foot-wide) antenna that was added to the Deep Space Network’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain in early 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech

When NASA needs to communicate with its spacecraft which are exploring our solar system and beyond, it sends and receives messages using a network of antennas called the Deep Space Network (DSN). And as craft like the Voyager probes travel deeper into space — as well as more and more missions being launch like the Perseverance rover which is on its way to Mars — the agency needs a more powerful communications network to keep in touch with them all.

Recommended Videos

Now, the DSN is getting an upgrade, with a new 34-meter-wide dish in Madrid, Spain which has just been added to the network.

Work has been taking place on the new antenna, Deep Space Station 56 (DSN-56), since 2017. Most other antennas in the network are fixed to send and receive in one particular frequency band so they can only talk to certain spacecraft, but DSN-56 is an all-in-one device that can use multiple frequency bands to talk to all the spacecraft currently using the network.

“DSS-56 offers the Deep Space Network additional real-time flexibility and reliability,” said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator and program manager of NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN), in a statement. “This new asset symbolizes and underscores our ongoing support for more than 30 deep space missions who count on our services to enable their success.”

In addition to the location in Spain, there are also DSN stations in Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, U.S.A. The three different locations around the globe mean that at least one location will always be in view of any space mission, even as the Earth rotates. With the addition of new hardware, the network will be able to handle more bandwidth which is important for future missions that will send back large amounts of data.

Getting the antenna up and running during the pandemic was no easy task, and the engineers also had to contend with an unexpectedly massive snowfall in Spain and a complicated setup and calibration phase. But with all that done, the antenna is now ready to work.

“After the lengthy process of commissioning, the DSN’s most capable 34-meter antenna is now talking with our spacecraft,” said Bradford Arnold, DSN project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Even though pandemic restrictions and the recent weather conditions in Spain have been significant challenges, the staff in Madrid persevered, and I am proud to welcome DSS-56 to the global DSN family.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
NASA can now talk to its spacecraft using lasers
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is depicted receiving a laser signal from the Deep Space Optical Communications uplink ground station at JPL’s Table Mountain Facility in this artist’s concept. The DSOC experiment consists of an uplink and downlink station, plus a flight laser transceiver flying with Psyche.

NASA has a communications problem: The radio frequencies used by spacecraft for communications are getting too busy. As more missions are sent into outer space, and as these missions carry increasingly sophisticated instruments, the amount of data that needs to be sent back to Earth is growing beyond the capacity of current radio communications systems.

The solution to this problem is to use higher frequencies, which can carry more data. But before any new communication system can be put into widespread use, it has to be tested.

Read more
Cygnus spacecraft suffers issue on the way to the space station
Cygnus in orbit.

Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft successfully launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, but a little while later, NASA reported an issue with the uncrewed vehicle as it headed to the International Space Station (ISS) with 8,200 pounds of supplies.

“Shortly after launch, the spacecraft missed its first burn slated for 11:44 a.m. due to a late entry to burn sequencing,” NASA said in a message on its website on Sunday.

Read more
NASA’s mega moon rocket has just begun a 900-mile journey
The core stage of NASA's SLS rocket.

NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is set to blast four astronauts to space next year on the epic Artemis II mission that will come within about 80 miles of the lunar surface.

In preparation for the mission, the rocket’s 213-foot-tall (65 meters) core stage has just embarked on a rather more leisurely journey -- on a barge heading for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Read more