NASA's Deep Space Network adds powerful new antenna

NASA's Deep Space Network has added a powerful new antenna to communicate with the growing number of spacecraft exploring our solar system.

The new antenna - dubbed Deep Space Station 53, or DSS-53 - is part of the agency's efforts to expand the capacity of the network and is now operational at the network's facility outside Madrid, Spain. It is the fourth among six new beam waveguide antennas that the agency is adding to the network.

NASA says the giant dish will act as a “workhorse” antenna capable of communicating on the frequencies most commonly used by the agency's spacecraft.

"This new antenna adds about 8% more capacity to the network. What it’s going to mean is 8% more science, and that’s really significant," said JPL’s Bradford Arnold, the DSN project manager.

DSN is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL) in Southern California for SCaN. It allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft.

Now with 14 operational antennas, the Deep Space Network supports about 40 missions and is expected to support another 40 that will launch in the coming years.

With a growing number of spacecraft exploring our solar system, we need a massive communications system to stay in contact with them. That’s where @NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) comes in.Today, @NASASCaN welcomed a new antenna to the DSN family! https://t.co/ww7FgTY15W pic.twitter.com/SoiAW0sqKJ

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) March 16, 2022