1958

NASA and the Deep Space Network

The success of Sputnik 1 caused some soul-searching within the US government, which had been embarrassed by the Soviet launch. Part of the problem was that numerous federal agencies and branches of the military were splitting (or duplicating) efforts to try to make rapid progress in space exploration. As a result, in 1958 the US Congress and president Dwight Eisenhower established a new federal agency—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—to oversee the nation’s civilian space and aeronautics programs. At the same time a military parallel, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA, with Defense added to the name) was formed to oversee space-related technology for the armed forces.

Part of the consolidation of the civilian space effort also went into developing the critical communications infrastructure that would be needed to maintain contact and control of future space probes. For the early Explorer missions, the Army’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) had deployed portable radio tracking stations in California, Singapore, and Nigeria to maintain constant communication with the missions as they circled the globe. When control of JPL was transferred to NASA in late 1958, and JPL was assigned the leading role in coordinating an ambitious program of future robotic space missions, it became clear that a more permanent communications solution would be needed.

The solution was to establish the Deep Space Network (DSN), a set of small, medium, and large radio telescopes spaced roughly equally around the world so that they could remain in constant contact with NASA’s space missions. DSN stations were established in Goldstone, California; near Madrid, Spain; and in Canberra, Australia, and each was outfitted with one large (230 feet [70 meters]) and several smaller (112 feet [34 meters]) radio telescopes and their transmitters and other equipment.

The DSN is the Earth’s switchboard, the solar system’s hub of interplanetary radio communications. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the stations and their dedicated and tireless staff collect data from, command, and sometimes even rescue civilian spacecraft that are part of what is today an incredible armada of more than 60 (soon increasing to more than 90) active Earth and planetary missions being run by NASA and other international space agencies.

The 230-foot (70-meter) diameter radio telescope of the NASA/JPL Deep Space Network (DSN) at Goldstone, California. Similar DSN telescopes are located in Spain and Australia to maintain a constant vigil over humanity’s fleet of interplanetary exploration spacecraft.