Picture Album of the
DEEP SPACE NETWORK

Compatibility Test Area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

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The Compatibility Test Area (CTA 21) was implemented at JPL in 1968 in building 125. Its primary function is to establish, during the development phase, that a spacecraft s telecommunications system could properly communicate with the deep-space stations. Before this facility was implemented, comparable tests were performed by taking the spacecraft to Goldstone, where it would communicate directly with a deep-space station. This technique was expensive and difficult for flight projects to schedule, in part because the stations were required to communicate with spacecraft in flight. A secondary function of the CTA is to develop operational procedures and provide network training. Finally, this facility provides telecommunications and data acquisition engineering personnel with a testbed capability to prove their designs prior to implementation at the deep-space stations.

1950's      1960's      1970's      1980's      1990's