NASA Adds a New Deep Space Network Dish as Demand From Spacecraft Grows

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), the system that communicates with spacecraft such as Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and New Horizons, has added a new 114-foot (34-meter) radio-frequency antenna at its Goldstone complex near Barstow, California. The antenna, called Deep Space Station 23, came online on August 3 and immediately began tracking NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

More than 40 spacecraft exploring the solar system and interstellar space rely on the DSN, which has struggled to keep pace with demand. Communications with the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in 2022 and the crewed Artemis 2 mission in 2026 took priority as they traveled around the moon, reducing the network's capacity to support other missions. "We're trying to add capacity and more antennas, but we can't keep up with the demand that's currently out there, so missions should expect to be getting less availability," Brad Arnold, DSN manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a presentation attended by Space News.

The DSN operates three complexes, at Goldstone in California, near Madrid in Spain and in Canberra, Australia, each built around a large 230-foot (70-meter) antenna alongside several smaller dishes. The new antenna is about half that size. It is the fifth of six new 34-meter antennas planned under the DSN's Aperture Enhancement Project, which began in 2009 and is expected to finish when a sixth antenna, DSS-33, comes online at the Canberra complex in 2029.

The expansion has taken longer and cost more than planned. A 2015 NASA Office of Inspector General report estimated the project at $362.4 million, but by the start of fiscal year 2023 expected costs had risen by 68% to $706 million, with the project running nearly five years behind schedule.