Three sites around the globe
The network has three complexes: Goldstone, near Barstow in California; near Madrid in Spain; and near Canberra in Australia. They stand roughly 120 degrees apart around the Earth, so as the planet turns, at least one of them can always see a given spacecraft.
The network is operated by JPL. The Canberra complex, for example, is managed and operated by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, on behalf of NASA.
Big dishes
Each complex has one antenna 70 metres across and several 34-metre antennas. The larger the dish, the fainter the signal it can catch, which matters for spacecraft billions of kilometres away.
What the network does
It sends commands to spacecraft and receives their telemetry, engineering and science data. It also tracks them, which is how navigators know where they are (see How a mission flies), and it is used for science in its own right: radar, radio science and radio astronomy.
The network tracks NASA spacecraft beyond the Moon and also supports missions of other space agencies, including the European Space Agency.
Sources
- NASA, What is the Deep Space Network?
- NASA JPL, Eight Essential Facts About NASA’s Deep Space Network
- NASA JPL DESCANSO, J. Taylor, The Deep Space Network: A Functional Description (Deep Space Communications, ch. 2)
- Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, Frequently Asked Questions
Sources checked on: 1 November 2026