GOLDSTONE TOUR
Introduction | Pioneer Site | Apollo Site
Gemini Site | Mars Site | Signal Processing Center

Dishes in the Desert
A Virtual Tour of NASA's Deep Space Network, Goldstone, Calif.

Towering high above the sagebrush and Joshua trees of California's Mojave Desert, a series of enormous satellite dishes is busy talking to robotic explorers throughout the solar system.

Welcome to the Goldstone complex of NASA's Deep Space Network. Goldstone, along with its companion communications facilities in Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia, provide constant observation of spacecraft as Earth rotates. Among their many duties, this trio of facilities provides the means for Earth-based teams to send commands to spacecraft and bring back images and information collected about planets, the solar system and the universe beyond.