Panorama Showcasing the 34-Meter Antennas of the DSN’s Goldstone Complex

Five antennas sit 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, appears at the right foreground. The other three 34-meter antennas are, from left, DSS-26, DSS-25, and DSS-24. At the far right is a smaller 26-meter (85-foot) antenna, the retired “Apollo Antenna,” built in 1967 as part of the Manned Space Flight Network and nicknamed for providing tracking for the Apollo Program. NASA leadership, personnel, and dignitaries gathered at DSS-23 for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on Aug. 25, 2026. DSS-23 is the latest antenna added under the Deep Space Network’s Aperture Enhancement Project, started in 2009 to add six new 34-meter multifrequency beam-waveguide antennas. The DSN, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program, tracks, sends commands to, and receives data from distant spacecraft. More: https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/dsn/