The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) is a satellite communication station, part of the

Deep Space Network The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide Telecommunications network, network of spacecraft communication ground segment facilities, located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that supports NASA' ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

(JPL), located at

Tidbinbilla Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a protected area, on the fringe of Namadgi National Park. Tidbinbilla is a short drive from the capital city of Australia, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. The nature reserve consists of a large val ...

in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

. Opened in 1965, the complex was used for tracking the

Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed sp ...

, and along with its two sister stations at Goldstone, California and

Madrid, Spain Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

is now used for tracking and communicating with NASA's spacecraft, particularly interplanetary missions. Its DSS-43 antenna is the only antenna on Earth that can send commands to

Voyager 1 ''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar medium, interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days afte ...

and

Voyager 2 ''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled further encounters with the ice giants (Uranus and ...

. It is managed in Australia by the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) at NASA Headquarters in

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

Location

The complex is located in the Paddys River (a tributary of the Cotter River) valley, about 20 km from

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

in the

. The complex is part of the Deep Space Network run by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). It is commonly referred to as the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station and was officially opened on 19 March 1965 by the

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

. The station is separated from Canberra by the Murrumbidgee River and, more importantly, the Coolamon Ridge, Urambi Hills, and Bullen Range, which help shield the dishes from the city's

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the u ...

(RF) noise. Located nearby is the

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a protected area, on the fringe of Namadgi National Park. Tidbinbilla is a short drive from the capital city of Australia, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. The nature reserve consists of a large va ...

Management

The CSIRO manages most of NASA's activities in Australia. In February 2010 CSIRO took over direct management of the site with the establishment of CASS (CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science). Previous to this CDSCC had been managed by external sub-contractor organisations, such as

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

Australia from 2003 to 2010; BAE Systems Australia 1990–2003; AWA Electronic Services -1990.

History

During the mid 1960s NASA built three

tracking 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 fro ...

s in the Australian Capital Territory.

Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex Map

*The

Tidbinbilla Tracking Station The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) is a earth station, satellite communication station, part of the Deep Space Network of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Tidbinbilla in the Au ...

(now known as CDSCC) was opened in 1965 and is the only NASA tracking station in Australia still in operation. During the

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

program, Tidbinbilla was used for tracking the

. *The

Orroral Valley Tracking Station The Orroral Valley tracking station was an Earth stations in Australia, Earth station in Australia, supported Earth-orbiting satellites, as part of NASA's Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN). It was located approximatel ...

() was opened in May 1965 in what is now part of

Namadgi National Park Namadgi National Park is a protected area in the southwest of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), bordering Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales. It lies approximately southwest of Canberra, and occupies approximately 46 percent of th ...

. Its role was orbiting satellite support, although it also supported the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. It was closed in 1985. *

Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was a NASA Earth stations in Australia, Earth station in Australia near Canberra. It was instrumental to the Apollo program. The station was opened in 1967 and closed in 1981. History Honeysuckle Creek wi ...

() opened in 1967 and was built primarily to support the Apollo Moon missions, mainly communications with the

Apollo Command Module The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo (spacecraft), Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functi ...

. After the cancellation of the Apollo Project the station supported

Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...

until its re-entry in 1979 when the station joined the

in support of the Viking and Voyager projects. 1981 saw the closure of the station and its 26 m antenna was moved to CDSCC to become known as Deep Space Station 46. After the antenna was removed the rest of the facility was dismantled and knocked down. Its foundation, access road and parking area are all that remains of the facility.

Antennas

As of late 2016 the station has five large antennas, called Deep Space Stations (DSS), each identified by a number: DSS-34, DSS-35, DSS-36, DSS-43, and DSS-45. The CDSCC also uses the

Parkes radio telescope Parkes Observatory is a radio astronomy observatory, located north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It hosts Murriyang, the 64 m CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope also known as "The Dish", along with two smaller radio telescopes. T ...

in central

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

at busy times to receive data from

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

(then designated DSS-49). There has been ongoing construction since 2010 building additional 34 m

beam waveguide antenna A beam waveguide antenna is a particular type of parabolic antenna, antenna dish, at which waveguides are used to transmit the radio beam between the large steerable dish and the equipment for Receiver (radio), reception or transmitter, transmissi ...

. Construction of DSS-35 began in July 2010. The station's

collimation A collimated beam of light or other electromagnetic radiation has parallel rays, and therefore will spread minimally as it propagates. A laser beam is an archetypical example. A perfectly collimated light beam, with no divergence, would not disp ...

tower is located approximately 3 km to the north-west, on Black Hill.

Funding

CDSCC costs about per year to run, and is funded by NASA.

References

External links

Partners in space: CSIRO and NASA - video

Official CDSCC Webpage

Official CSIRO pages

Tidbinbilla Tracking Station tribute site

Honeysuckle Creek tribute siteNASA's GRO Remote Terminal System Installed at Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
{{Authority control Earth stations in the Australian Capital Territory Space programme of Australia Deep space networks 1965 establishments in Australia CSIRO NASA facilities in Australia