Live on the globe now: 3 tracked
This layer plots NASA's three Deep Space Network (DSN) ground complexes on the live globe and shows which spacecraft each one is communicating with at this moment. The DSN's antenna farms sit near Goldstone in California's Mojave Desert, outside Madrid in Spain, and near Canberra in Australia, spaced roughly 120 degrees apart in longitude so that as Earth rotates at least one complex can always reach a distant probe. Click a complex to see its current links: the spacecraft being tracked, whether the antenna is uplinking commands or downlinking data (often both, sometimes to more than one craft at once), and the live data rate. On any given pass you might catch Voyager 1 and 2 out past the heliopause, Mars orbiters and rovers, the James Webb Space Telescope, New Horizons, or the Parker Solar Probe. The DSN, operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, communicates in the S-, X- and Ka-bands using 34-meter and 70-meter dishes. The data here mirrors NASA's own DSN Now feed and updates continuously, reflecting the network's state to within seconds. It is one of roughly 29 live layers you can solo on the same interactive Earth.
Data source: NASA DSN
It mirrors NASA's public DSN Now feed (eyes.nasa.gov/dsn), the same near-real-time data NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory publishes for its three Deep Space Network complexes.
Goldstone (California), Madrid (Spain) and Canberra (Australia). They sit about 120 degrees apart in longitude so that as Earth turns, at least one complex always has a line of sight to deep-space craft, giving continuous coverage.
Whatever has an active link at that moment. Common ones include Voyager 1 and 2, Mars orbiters and rovers, the James Webb Space Telescope, New Horizons and the Parker Solar Probe. The list changes minute to minute as passes begin and end.
Downlink is data coming from a spacecraft to the antenna; uplink is commands going up to the spacecraft. A single dish often does both at once, and a complex may talk to several craft simultaneously.