Telescope Information
IDENTIFIER urn:nasa:pds:context:telescope:goldstone.dss16_26m::1.1
NAME DSS-16 Radio Telescope
DESCRIPTION This 26-meter (85-ft.) diameter antenna was originally designed as part of the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN), managed by Goddard Space Flight Center. At the completion of the Apollo missions, DSS-16 was designated a part of the Satellite Tracking and Data Network (STDN) and used for tracking Earth orbiting satellites and for initial acquisition of any spacecraft immediately after launch. It partnered with DSS-46 (near Canberra, Australia) and DSS-66 (near Madrid, Spain) in a 26-m subnet for this purpose. In the 1990s it provided communications with NASA's Space Shuttle. DSS-16 could transmit 50-2000 W at 2.1 GHz (S-band). It could receive right- and left-circularly polarized signals simultaneously at both 2.3 GHz and 8.4 GHz; its receiver could combine the signals to obtain a rotatable linear polization. The antenna was completed in 1966 and remained part of NASA's tracking networks until the mid-2000s.
FACILITY Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex
APERTURE 26.0
LONGITUDE 243.12636
LATITUDE 35.34154
ALTITUDE
COORIDINATE SOURCE Geodetic coordinates derived using an ellipsoid with semi-major axis a = 6378136.3 m and flattening f = 298.257 (see DSN document 810-005, Module 301 issued 2001-01-15, Table 5 and associated text).
INVESTIGATION(S)
INSTRUMENT(S) NASA Deep Space Network Radio Science