NASA recently installed the 133-ton reflector dish for Deep Space Station 23, marking a significant step in strengthening the agency’s Deep Space Network.
NASA’s Deep Space Network, a collection of massive radio antennas, enables the agency to track, communicate with, and receive data from spacecraft exploring the Moon and beyond. To meet increasing demand, NASA is adding a new antenna, bringing the total to 15, to support the world’s largest and most sensitive radio frequency telecommunications system.
The latest antenna installation occurred on Dec. 18 at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. Teams installed the metal reflector framework for Deep Space Station 23, a multifrequency beam-waveguide antenna. Once operational in 2026, this station will receive transmissions from missions such as Perseverance, Psyche, Europa Clipper, Voyager 1, and an expanding fleet of human and robotic spacecraft venturing into deep space.
“This addition to the Deep Space Network represents a crucial communication upgrade for the agency,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program. “The communications infrastructure has been in continuous operation since its creation in 1963, and with this upgrade, we are ensuring NASA is prepared to support the increasing number of missions exploring the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”
Construction of the new antenna has been underway for over four years. During installation, teams used a crawler crane to lower the 133-ton metal skeleton of the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) parabolic reflector before securing it to a 65-foot-high (20-meter-high) alidade, a platform above the antenna’s pedestal that will guide the reflector during operations.
“One of the biggest challenges during the lift was ensuring that we perfectly aligned 40 bolt-holes between the structure and the alidade,” said Germaine Aziz, systems engineer for NASA’s Deep Space Network Aperture Enhancement Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This required careful attention to alignment before the lift to ensure everything went smoothly on installation day.”
After the main lift, engineers performed a secondary lift to place a quadripod—a 16.5-ton, four-legged support structure—onto the center of the upward-facing reflector. The quadripod contains a curved subreflector that will direct radio frequency signals from deep space, which bounce off the main reflector, into the antenna’s pedestal where the receivers are located.
