From Mars to interstellar space, NASA’s new giant antenna is now operational

NASA has brought a powerful new addition to its Deep Space Network online, activating a 34-meter radio antenna designed to help the agency communicate with spacecraft operating across the solar system and beyond.

The new antenna, known as Deep Space Station 23, or DSS-23, became operational on August 3, 2026, at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California's Mojave Desert. The activation marks another major step in NASA's long-running effort to expand the capacity of the Deep Space Network as the number and complexity of space missions continue to grow.

Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Deep Space Network provides the critical communication links that allow engineers on Earth to send commands to spacecraft and receive scientific data from missions operating millions — and sometimes billions — of miles away.

DSS-23 begins communicating with spacecraft across the solar system

DSS-23 entered service after months of calibration and testing between May and July. Its first operational target was NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, but the new antenna has quickly become involved in supporting a much wider range of missions.

The 34-meter dish has already exchanged signals with spacecraft including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Psyche, Juno and Voyager 1.

Voyager 1 remains particularly significant because it is the most distant human-made object ever sent into space. Maintaining communication with spacecraft at such extreme distances requires some of the world's most sensitive radio antennas.

The new Goldstone antenna is also expected to support major upcoming and continuing NASA missions, including Artemis lunar flights, Europa Clipper and the Perseverance rover on Mars.

As NASA expands its exploration of the Moon, Mars and the outer solar system, the agency is under increasing pressure to ensure that its ground-based communication infrastructure can keep pace with a growing fleet of spacecraft.

A giant dish with much of its technology hidden underground

While DSS-23 is dominated by its enormous 34-meter-wide reflector, much of its advanced technology is not mounted directly on the moving structure.

The antenna uses what is known as a multifrequency beam waveguide system. Incoming radio signals are redirected by a series of five highly precise mirrors through a tube and into equipment housed in a climate-controlled room below ground.

The design allows sensitive electronics and cryogenic cooling systems to remain in a more stable environment instead of being carried on the massive moving antenna.

That approach can make maintenance easier while also helping engineers maintain the precise operating conditions needed to detect extremely weak signals arriving from deep space.

Six years from groundbreaking to activation

Construction of DSS-23 began in February 2020, launching a complex engineering project that took more than six years to bring into full operation.

One of the major milestones came in December 2024, when engineers used a heavy crawler crane to lift the antenna's 133-ton steel reflector structure onto its rotating base. The dish was mounted on a platform approximately 65 feet tall, followed by the installation of a large quadripod structure supporting the antenna's subreflector.

The following stages involved attaching and aligning the antenna panels, calibrating the beam waveguide mirrors and integrating the communication systems.

By 2026, the facility had moved into its final testing phase. After several months of calibration work, DSS-23 was cleared for operational use on August 3.

NASA's Deep Space Network gets its 15th operational antenna

The activation of DSS-23 brings NASA's global Deep Space Network to 15 operational antennas.

The network is divided among three major facilities positioned around the globe: Goldstone in California, a site near Madrid in Spain and the Canberra complex in Australia.

The three locations are strategically separated so that as Earth rotates, spacecraft can remain in contact with at least one Deep Space Network facility.

The system supports a wide variety of NASA missions, ranging from spacecraft orbiting Mars to probes exploring the outer solar system. It also plays an increasingly important role as NASA prepares for more ambitious lunar exploration and future human spaceflight missions.

A larger upgrade is still underway

DSS-23 is part of NASA's broader Deep Space Network modernization programme, which has focused on increasing the network's communication capacity.

It is the fifth of six planned 34-meter beam waveguide antennas being developed under an expansion effort that began in 2009. Another antenna, DSS-53, entered service at the Madrid complex in 2022.

The final antenna in the current expansion plan, DSS-33, is expected to be completed at the Canberra facility in 2029.

Once that dish becomes operational, NASA will have added another layer of capacity to a network that is becoming increasingly important as more spacecraft are launched toward the Moon, Mars, asteroids and deep space.

Why NASA needs bigger and more capable communication systems

The growing number of space missions presents a challenge that is less visible than a rocket launch but equally critical: every spacecraft needs time to communicate with Earth.

Missions must send back scientific data, engineering information and images while also receiving instructions from ground controllers. As the number of active missions rises, competition for access to Deep Space Network antennas increases.

DSS-23 is designed to help ease that pressure.

Its activation gives NASA another powerful communication asset at a time when the agency is supporting spacecraft throughout the solar system while preparing for a new era of lunar exploration through the Artemis programme.

For NASA, the giant dish rising from the Mojave Desert is more than just another piece of ground equipment. It is part of the infrastructure that keeps some of humanity's most distant spacecraft connected to Earth — including Voyager 1, which continues to send signals from interstellar space.