在加州、西班牙和澳大利亚设站的美国国家航空航天局深太空天线网庆祝它与探索月球、火星、外行星和星际空间的飞行使命进行通讯联络50周年。

深太空天线网（Deep Space Network）最初只是深太空仪器设施（Deep Space Instrumentation Facility）中数量有限的小型天线。由美国陆军在20世纪50年代运作的这个设施在1963年12月24日转变为深太空天线网，并在实际上迅速成为探索深层空间使命的天线网络。

这个天线网在运行的第一年与3艘太空船进行了通讯联络：“水手2号”（Mariner 2），“行星际监测平台-A”（IMP-A），以及“宇宙神-半人马座2号”（Atlas Centaur 2）。今天，它通过位于加州戈尔德斯通（Goldstone, California）、西班牙马德里（Madrid, Spain）附近和澳大利亚堪培拉（Canberra, Australia）附近的3组天线联系着33艘太空航行器（见上图，摄于1997年）。这些天线组在地球上以120度彼此相隔，对太阳系给予24小时无间断覆盖。

在过去50年里，深太空天线网的天线与探索月球和极深层空间的大多数飞船和探测器有过通讯联络。其最辉煌的时刻包括：转播宇航员尼尔·阿姆斯特朗（Neil Armstrong）以“人类的一大步”踏上月球的一刻；传送与太阳系外行星多次相遇的数据；传回探索火星漫游车拍摄的图像；以及转回信息，证实美国国家航空航天局的“旅行者1号”（Voyager 1）太空船已进入星际空间。

过去数十年间，欧洲、日本和俄罗斯的太空机构也依靠深太空天线网来计划和联络其各自的太空使命。最近，深太空天线网被印度用于进行其首次太阳系行星探索行动“火星轨道器使命”（Mars Orbiter Mission）。

NASA’s Deep Space Network, with outposts in California, Spain and Australia, is celebrating its first 50 years of communicating with space missions to the moon, Mars, the outer planets and interstellar space.

The Deep Space Network first existed as just a few small antennas as part of the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility. That facility, operated by the U.S. Army in the 1950s, morphed into the Deep Space Network on December 24, 1963, and quickly became the de facto network for missions into deep space.

During its first year of operation, the network communicated with three spacecraft: Mariner 2, IMP-A and Atlas Centaur 2. Today, it communicates with 33 via three antenna complexes in Goldstone, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia (shown above in 1997). Located about 120 degrees apart around Earth, the complexes provides round-the-clock coverage of the solar system.

During the past 50 years, antennas of the Deep Space Network have communicated with most of the missions that have gone to the moon and far into deep space. The highlights include relaying the moment when astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon in a “giant leap for mankind”; transmitting data from numerous encounters with the outer planets of the solar system; communicating images taken by rovers exploring Mars; and relaying the data confirming that NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft had entered interstellar space.

Space agencies in Europe, Japan and Russia have relied on the Deep Space Network when planning and communicating with their own missions over the decades. The Deep Space Network has been used recently by India’s first interplanetary probe, the Mars Orbiter Mission.