Tracks of a Giant

The giant, 70-meter-wide antenna at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, Calif., tracks a spacecraft on Nov. 17, 2009.
August 25, 2010
CreditNASA/JPL-Caltech
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The giant, 70-meter-wide antenna at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, Calif., tracks a spacecraft on Nov. 17, 2009. This antenna, officially known as Deep Space Station 14, is also nicknamed the "Mars antenna." Its name comes from its first task: to track the Mariner 4 spacecraft after its historic flyby of Mars in 1966.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Deep Space Network for NASA Headquarters, Washington. More information about the Deep Space Network is online at http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/index.html.