Deep Space Network

Deep Space Network
Dwarf Planets
Missions
NASA Directorates
New Horizons
Planetary Science
Planetary Science Division
Pluto
Science Mission Directorate
The Kuiper Belt
The Solar System
Uncategorized
Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto.
Posted July 7, 2026
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)
Deep Space Network
Goddard Space Flight Center
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars
Science Mission Directorate
The first mission devoted to observing the Martian atmosphere and its evolution, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), has ended after more than 11 years in orbit at Mars and a decade beyond its primary, one-year mission. The spacecraft was heard last on Dec. 6, when it experienced an unexpected loss of signal after […]
Posted June 3, 2026
Deep Space Network
Deep Space Station 15, one of the 112-foot antennas at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, looks skyward, with the stars of the Milky Way overhead, in September 2025.
Posted January 30, 2026
Titan
Astrobiology
Cassini
Deep Space Network
Dragonfly
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Planetary Science
Planetary Science Division
Saturn
Saturn Moons
A key discovery from NASA’s Cassini mission in 2008 was that Saturn’s largest moon Titan may have a vast water ocean below its hydrocarbon-rich surface. But reanalysis of mission data suggests a more complicated picture: Titan’s interior is more likely composed of ice, with layers of slush and small pockets of warm water that form […]
Posted December 17, 2025
Deep Space Network
A crane lowers the 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) steel framework for the Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23) reflector dish into position on Dec. 18, 2024, at the Deep Space Network’s (DSN) Goldstone Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. Once online in 2026, DSS-23 will be the fifth of six new beam waveguide antennas to be added to […]
Posted January 31, 2025
Deep Space Network
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Space Communications & Navigation Program
Space Operations Mission Directorate
Deep Space Station 23’s 133-ton reflector dish was recently installed, marking a key step in strengthening NASA’s Deep Space Network. NASA’s Deep Space Network, an array of giant radio antennas, allows agency missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond. NASA is adding a new […]
Posted December 21, 2024
Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA)
Asteroids
Deep Space Network
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Planetary Defense
Planetary Defense Coordination Office
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA)
Space Communications & Navigation Program
The Deep Space Network’s Goldstone planetary radar had a busy few days observing asteroids 2024 MK and 2011 UL21 as they safely passed Earth. Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California recently tracked two asteroids as they flew by our planet. One turned out to have a little moon orbiting it, while the […]
Posted July 3, 2024
Deep Space Network
This April 20, 2024, image shows a first: all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time. Combining the antennas’ receiving power, or arraying, lets the DSN collect […]
Posted May 1, 2024
Asteroids
Deep Space Network
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA)
Planetary Defense
Planetary Defense Coordination Office
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA)
Space Communications & Navigation Program
During the close approach of 2008 OS7 with Earth on Feb. 2, the agency’s Deep Space Network planetary radar gathered the first detailed images of the stadium-size asteroid. On Feb. 2, a large asteroid safely drifted past Earth at a distance of about 1.8 million miles (2.9 million kilometers, or 7 ½ times the distance […]
Posted February 26, 2024
Deep Space Network
Space Communications & Navigation Program
Space Communications Technology
Space Operations Mission Directorate
Space Technology Mission Directorate
Technology Demonstration
Technology Demonstration Missions Program
Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC, aboard NASA’s Psyche mission. An experimental antenna has received both radio frequency and near-infrared laser signals from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels through deep space.
Posted February 8, 2024
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