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28-544: The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex ( GDSCC ), commonly called the Goldstone Observatory , is a satellite ground station located in Fort Irwin in the U.S. state of California . Operated by NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), its main purpose is to track and communicate with interplanetary space missions . It is named after Goldstone, California, a nearby gold-mining ghost town . The station

56-416: A Telecommunications Satellite Park ) innovation was conceived and developed by Joseph Milano in 1976 as part of a National Research Council study entitled, Telecommunications for Metropolitan Areas: Near-Term Needs and Opportunities". A network of ground stations is a group of stations located to support spacecraft communication, tracking, or both. A network is established to provide dedicated support to

84-532: A 70-meter (230 ft) Cassegrain antenna , is used for communication with space missions to the outer planets, such as the Voyager spacecraft, which, at 21.5 billion kilometers, is the most distant manmade object from Earth. The radio frequencies used for spacecraft communication are in the microwave part of the radio spectrum; S band (2.29–2.30 GHz), X band (8.40–8.50 GHz) and Ka band (31.8–32.3 GHz). In addition to receiving radio signals from

112-571: A satellite. In May 1984, the Dallas/Fort Worth Teleport became the first American teleport to commence operation. In Federal Standard 1037C , the United States General Services Administration defined an Earth terminal complex as the assemblage of equipment and facilities necessary to integrate an Earth terminal (ground station) into a telecommunications network. FS-1037C has since been subsumed by

140-470: A specific mission, function, program or organization. Ground station networks include: Other historical networks have included: Pioneer program Credit for naming the first probe has been attributed to Stephen A. Saliga, who had been assigned to the Air Force Orientation Group, Wright-Patterson AFB, as chief designer of Air Force exhibits. While he was at a briefing, the spacecraft

168-399: Is called a ground tracking station , or space tracking station , or simply a tracking station . When a spacecraft or satellite is within a ground station's line of sight, the station is said to have a view of the spacecraft (see pass ). A spacecraft can communicate with more than one ground station at a time. A pair of ground stations are said to have a spacecraft in mutual view when

196-553: Is far from manmade sources of radio noise such as motor vehicles. The RF front ends of the radio receivers at the dishes use ruby masers , consisting of a bar of synthetic ruby cooled by liquid helium to 4.5 K to minimize the noise introduced by the electronics. When not needed for spacecraft communication, the Goldstone antennas are used as sensitive radio telescopes for astronomical research, such as mapping quasars and other celestial radio sources ; radar mapping planets ,

224-527: Is no entry fee and no need to make reservations to stop by the Visitor Center. The 70m dish also known as Mars or DSS14 is featured in the opening sequences of the 1968 film Ice Station Zebra . The Goldstone Facility was prominently featured in Part 1 of The Incredible Hulk (TV Series) episode, "Prometheus". A Boy and His Dog (1975 film) used the facility for the industrial looking entrance sequence to

252-599: Is one of three satellite communication stations in the NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program’s Deep Space Network (DSN), whose mission is to provide the vital two-way communications link that tracks and controls interplanetary spacecraft and receives the images and scientific information they collect. The others are the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain and

280-656: The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia . These three stations are located at separations of approximately 120° longitude so that as the Earth rotates a spacecraft will always be in sight of at least one station. The complex includes the Pioneer Deep Space Station (aka DSS 11), which is a U.S. National Historic Landmark . Five large parabolic (dish) antennas are located at

308-678: The International Consultative Committee for Radio administered standards and regulations now governed by the ITU-R. In addition to the body of standards defined by the ITU-R, each major satellite operator provides technical requirements and standards that ground stations must meet in order to communicate with the operator's satellites. For example, Intelsat publishes the Intelsat Earth Station Standards (IESS) which, among other things, classifies ground stations by

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336-600: The Moon , comets and asteroids ; spotting comets and asteroids with the potential to strike Earth; and the search for ultra-high energy neutrino interactions in the Moon by using large-aperture radio antennas . The Goldstone complex was created in 1958 by the JPL to support the Pioneer program of deep space exploration probes. Its location was determined by two criteria: a bowl-shaped environment

364-684: The Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe , this time using orbital insertion rather than flyby missions. The new missions were numbered beginning with Pioneer 6 (alternate names in parentheses). The spacecraft in Pioneer missions 6, 7, 8, and 9 comprised a new interplanetary space weather network: Pioneer 6 and Pioneer 9 are in solar orbits with 0.8 AU distance to the Sun. Their orbital periods are therefore slightly shorter than Earth's. Pioneer 7 and Pioneer 8 are in solar orbits with 1.1 AU distance to

392-410: The 1 to 3 GHz range. It was taken out of service in 1981, having been technologically bypassed by later telescopes. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1985 for its pioneering role in deep space exploration. It is commonly believed that the first American satellite, Explorer 1 , was confirmed to be in orbit by the use of the phrase "Goldstone has the bird". However, Goldstone

420-661: The ATIS Telecom Glossary, which is maintained by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), an international, business-oriented, non-governmental organization . The Telecommunications Industry Association also acknowledges this definition. The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), a division of the International Telecommunication Union , codifies international standards agreed-upon through multinational discourse. From 1927 to 1932,

448-554: The Air Force would "make a 'quantum jump' as to who, really, [were] the 'Pioneers' in space.'" The earliest missions were attempts to achieve Earth's escape velocity , simply to show it was feasible and to study the Moon . This included the first launch by NASA which was formed from the old NACA . These missions were carried out by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division , Army , and NASA. Five years after

476-541: The Goldstone site to handle the workload, since at any given time the DSN is responsible for maintaining communication with up to 30 spacecraft. The antennas function similarly to a home satellite dish . However, since the spacecraft they communicate with are much farther away than the communication satellites which home satellite dishes use, the signals received are much weaker, requiring a larger aperture antenna to gather enough radio energy to make them intelligible. The largest,

504-519: The capabilities of their parabolic antennas, and pre-approves certain antenna models. Eutelsat publishes similar standards and requirements, such as the Eutelsat Earth Station Standards (EESS). The Interagency Operations Advisory Group offers a Service Catalog describing standard services, Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support Standard, and Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems data standards. The Teleport (originally called

532-463: The early Able space probe missions ended, NASA Ames Research Center used the Pioneer name for a new series of missions, initially aimed at the inner Solar System , before the flyby missions to Jupiter and Saturn . While successful, the missions returned much poorer images than the Voyager program probes would five years later. In 1978, the end of the program saw a return to the inner Solar System, with

560-516: The film's world of "Down Under" according to the director's commentary (not without difficulty - the filming crew had a hard time getting access). Satellite ground station A ground station , Earth station , or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves from astronomical radio sources . Ground stations may be located either on

588-680: The ground station is the parabolic antenna . Ground stations may have either a fixed or itinerant position. Article 1 § III of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations describes various types of stationary and mobile ground stations, and their interrelationships. Specialized satellite Earth stations or satellite tracking stations are used to telecommunicate with satellites — chiefly communications satellites . Other ground stations communicate with crewed space stations or uncrewed space probes . A ground station that primarily receives telemetry data, or that follows space missions, or satellites not in geostationary orbit ,

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616-400: The spacecraft ( downlink signals), the antennas also transmit commands to the spacecraft ( uplink signals) with high power radio transmitters (80 kW) powered by klystron tubes. A major goal in the design of the station is to reduce interference with the weak incoming downlink radio signals by natural and manmade radio noise . The remote Mojave Desert location was chosen because it

644-569: The stations share simultaneous, unobstructed, line-of-sight contact with the spacecraft. A telecommunications port — or, more commonly, teleport — is a satellite ground station that functions as a hub connecting a satellite or geocentric orbital network with a terrestrial telecommunications network , such as the Internet . Teleports may provide various broadcasting services among other telecommunications functions, such as uploading computer programs or issuing commands over an uplink to

672-458: The surface of the Earth , or in its atmosphere. Earth stations communicate with spacecraft by transmitting and receiving radio waves in the super high frequency (SHF) or extremely high frequency (EHF) bands (e.g. microwaves ). When a ground station successfully transmits radio waves to a spacecraft (or vice versa), it establishes a telecommunications link . A principal telecommunications device of

700-661: Was Red Station. Probably this detection of the Explorer 1 signal was actually made at the Minitrack station at Brown Field, a US Navy airfield near San Diego. This station was later moved to Goldstone, accounting for the error. The Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex has temporarily suspended tours for the public. However, there is a Visitor Center located in Harvey House, 681 North First Avenue, Barstow , CA 92311. Operating hours are Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 9AM - 3PM. There

728-496: Was described to him, as, a "lunar-orbiting vehicle, with an infrared scanning device." Saliga thought the title too long, and lacked theme for an exhibit design. He suggested, "Pioneer", as the name of the probe, since "the Army had already launched and orbited the Explorer satellite, and their Public Information Office was identifying the Army, as, 'Pioneers in Space,'" and, by adopting the name,

756-564: Was needed, and it needed to be distant from terrestrial sources of radio interference . This site, on the grounds of Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert , was found to meet the criteria. Construction of the first radio telescope, DSS 11 or the Pioneer Deep Space Station, was begun by the United States Army and taken over by NASA after its creation. It is a 26-metre (85 ft) parabolic Cassegrain antenna capable of receiving signals in

784-543: Was not in operation at the time of Explorer 1, and like many oft-repeated quotations it is incorrect. Others claim that the actual phrase was "Gold has it!", incorrectly identifying "Gold" as a temporary tracking station at Earthquake Valley , east of Julian, California . In fact, Gold Station was located at the Air Force Missile Test Center (AFMTC) in Florida and the temporary tracking station at Earthquake Valley

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