The Deep Space Network Celebrates 40 Years of Service
"Station 14 - this is Stardust. We have a command load to send to the spacecraft. Can we verify your command
system". For the past 40 years commands have been uplinked to exploring spacecraft, and their precious science
data retrieved, through the powerful transmitters, sensitive receivers, and immense antennas of the Deep Space
Network, or DSN.
On December 24, 1963, a memo from Dr. William Pickering, JPL Director at that time, announced that the Deep Space Network was established. Although in 1958 antennas had been built at the Goldstone site in California's Mojave Desert, and overseas sites were being developed in Woomera, Australia, and in Johannesburg, South Africa, it was Dr. Pickering's action that combined the disparate elements to create the first integrated global communications capability to deep space.
During the ensuing 40 years the DSN has evolved. The original antennas were 26-meters but were soon joined by much larger 64-meter antennas. As the sophistication of spacecraft instrumentation grew, the DSN also grew to meet the new demands. Both 26-meter and 64-meter antennas were upgraded and enlarged to 34-meter and 70-meters respectively. New 34-meter high efficiency antennas were designed; and most recently a unique communication system was developed in the widely used 34-meter beam waveguide antennas.
Joe Wackley, Manager of the Operations Program Office remembers "The DSN has evolved over the last 40 years from a network with very simple capabilities such as being able to support 8 bits per second telemetry and one spacecraft at a time to one that regularly supports multi-megabit telemetry and a host of more than three dozen spacecraft in any given year, ranging from near Earth spacecraft to missions with round trip communications times of more than a day."
Goldstone remains the U.S. location, but overseas sites have been relocated to Canberra, Australia and Madrid, Spain. Their position around the world allows round the clock communications with spacecraft as Earth rotates.
"Because of foresight and abilities of its managers and engineers, who are justifiably proud, the DSN has evolved into the most sensitive and reliable deep space receiving instrument ever built." Wackley explained, "enabling and contributing to the successful accomplishment of the scientific exploration of the solar system through missions such as the Mariners, Viking, Voyager, Galileo, SOHO, Shuttle, Pathfinder,…too numerous to count…and by most of the spacefaring nations of the world."
The Deep Space Network has an amazing history that will continue to be written for the next 40 years and beyond.
