Canberra Deep Space Comms Complex
When it opened in March 1965, the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Instrumentation Facility 42 (DSIF42), now known as the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex (CDSCC) was built specifically to support inter-planetary spacecraft exploring the Solar System.
The three dishes visible above are, from the left, Deep Space Station (DSS) 45, 43 and 46 (although now in 2025 I can see four dishes!). The latter, a 26m dish, was originally located at Honeysuckle Creek (20 km to the south), where it was the relay station through which the television pictures of Neil Armstrong's historic first steps passed to a worldwide audience. It was moved here in 1983 and was retired in 2009.
DSS 45, a 34m dish, was built to support Voyager 2's encounter with Uranus in early 1986. It was retired in 2016.
DSS 43, a 70m dish, supported Voyager 2's 1989 encounter with Neptune. It remains the largest steerable antenna in the southern hemisphere. It weighs 3,000 tonnes and the surface area of the dish is over one acre (old school) or 4,180 sq m.
Modernisation and development of the site continues. There are at least three other large (34m+) dishes on the site, which is at Tidbinbilla, some 35 km south of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). In addition to being an integral part of NASA's Deep Space Network, the dishes participate in multiple fields of scientific research including interferometry, very-long-baseline interferometry, radio science, radio and radar astronomy, Earth dynamics and sky surveys.
Canberra Deep Space Comms Complex
When it opened in March 1965, the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Instrumentation Facility 42 (DSIF42), now known as the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex (CDSCC) was built specifically to support inter-planetary spacecraft exploring the Solar System.
The three dishes visible above are, from the left, Deep Space Station (DSS) 45, 43 and 46 (although now in 2025 I can see four dishes!). The latter, a 26m dish, was originally located at Honeysuckle Creek (20 km to the south), where it was the relay station through which the television pictures of Neil Armstrong's historic first steps passed to a worldwide audience. It was moved here in 1983 and was retired in 2009.
DSS 45, a 34m dish, was built to support Voyager 2's encounter with Uranus in early 1986. It was retired in 2016.
DSS 43, a 70m dish, supported Voyager 2's 1989 encounter with Neptune. It remains the largest steerable antenna in the southern hemisphere. It weighs 3,000 tonnes and the surface area of the dish is over one acre (old school) or 4,180 sq m.
Modernisation and development of the site continues. There are at least three other large (34m+) dishes on the site, which is at Tidbinbilla, some 35 km south of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). In addition to being an integral part of NASA's Deep Space Network, the dishes participate in multiple fields of scientific research including interferometry, very-long-baseline interferometry, radio science, radio and radar astronomy, Earth dynamics and sky surveys.