NASA’s ‘Deep Space Network’ is turning 60 years old today, i.e., on the 24th of December 2023. The Deep Space Network has been working continuously for the last 60 years starting from 1963. As a mark of appreciation for the immense contribution that the DSN has offered in the last 60 years, NASA will have a celebration organized by its Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program in the year 2024.
For the unversed, NASA’s Deep Space Network is a web of giant radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and also the ones that orbit Earth. It provides radar and radio astronomy observations and communication/commanding links for spacecraft to exist and function.
The world has been mesmerized by the galactic images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists and researchers have moved on to new developments with the help of the cutting-edge science data sent back from Mars by the Perseverance rover and the beautiful images of the Moon’s South pole by Artemis I. All of these have been possible because of NASA’s Deep Space Network which has continuously operated by providing proper communication links for these missions.
The Deep Space Network is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
You can check out more about NASA’s Deep Space Network here.
