AI Insight
NASA has completed Deep Space Station 23 (DSS-23), a new 34-meter beam-waveguide antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Network complex in California, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held in August 2026. This antenna is part of the Aperture Enhancement Project that began in 2009 to expand the DSN with six new 34-meter multifrequency antennas. The DSN enables NASA to track spacecraft, send commands, and receive scientific data from distant missions across the solar system.
Why it matters
The expansion of the Deep Space Network's capabilities is critical for supporting the growing number of deep space missions and ensuring reliable communication with spacecraft exploring distant regions of our solar system and beyond. The versatile multifrequency design allows these antennas to serve multiple missions simultaneously across different radio frequencies.
Understand the Science
Panorama Showcasing the 34-Meter Antennas of the DSN’s Goldstone Complex
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Description
Five antennas soak in the summer sun at the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone complex near Barstow, California, in August 2026. The recently completed Deep Space Station 23, a 34-meter (114-foot) beam-waveguide antenna, can be seen to the right of the frame in the foreground. The other three 34-meter antennas are, from left, DSS-26, DSS-25, and DSS-24. At farthest right is a smaller 26-meter (85-foot) antenna, the retired “Apollo Antenna” that was built in 1967 as part of the Manned Space Flight Network and earned its nickname for providing tracking for the Apollo Program.
NASA leadership and personnel as well as dignitaries gathered at the complete DSS-23 antenna for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on Aug. 25, 2026. It’s the latest antenna to be added as part of the Deep Space Network’s Aperture Enhancement Project, which began in 2009 to upgrade and expand the network by adding six new 34-meter multifrequency beam-waveguide antennas. These versatile Deep Space Network (DSN) dishes can enhance many missions operating over different radio frequencies.
The DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft. It is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a division of Caltech, for the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program, which is located at NASA Headquarters within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate.
For more information about the DSN, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/dsn/
Source: Panorama Showcasing the 34-Meter Antennas of the DSN’s Goldstone Complex