The Deep Space Network (DSN) Satellites located in Mojave Desert in California turns 50 next week

English: View of Canberra 70m (230 ft.) antenn...

English: View of Canberra 70m (230 ft.) antenna with flags from the three Deep Space Network sites. The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, located outside Canberra, Australia, is one of the three complexes which comprise NASA’s Deep Space Network. The other complexes are located in Goldstone, California, and Madrid, Spain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Our Deep Space Network, the original ‘wireless network’ turns 50 next week!

Late night in the desert: Goldstone’s 230-foot (70-meter) antenna tracks spacecraft day and night. This photograph was taken on Jan. 11, 2012. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, located in the Mojave Desert in California, is one of three complexes that comprise NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN provides radio communications for all of NASA’s interplanetary spacecraft and is also utilized for radio astronomy and radar observations of the solar system and the universe. DSN, the world’s largest and most powerful communications system for “talking to” spacecraft, will reach a milestone on Dec. 24: the 50th anniversary of its official creation.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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English: Three 34m (110 ft.) diameter Beam Wav...

English: Three 34m (110 ft.) diameter Beam Waveguide antennas located at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, situated in the Mojave Desert in California. This is one of three complexes which comprise NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN provides radio communications for all of NASA’s interplanetary spacecraft and is also utilized for radio astronomy and radar observations of the solar system and the universe. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)