Deep Space Madrid

[mount_oregano]

Parabolic antennae have never been this exciting before. And oh so Spanish!

Check out the intro video to the site for MDSCC, Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex for NASA. The English and Spanish versions are the same, except that the English version has subtitles.

http://www.mdscc.org/

NASA has three space communication complexes that make up its Deep Space Network: one in Goldstone, California; another near Canberra, Australia; and the third in Robledo de Chavela, near Madrid, Spain, with a staff of 130 people.

Forty years ago, the message from Apollo 11, "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed," traveled from the Moon to Houston via the Madrid antenna.

— Sue Burke

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I love the Tidbinbilla one. I live about 20 kms away from it.

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

"The Dish"? That one? I loved the movie.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I love the movie, but it cheated a bit on the actual dish. The place that received those first crucial moments (until the Earth shifted and Spain and the US could receive) was at Honeysuckle Creek (http://honeysucklecreek.net/). It's in the same general area as Tidbinbilla where there are telescopes now, but Honeysuckle Creek no longer has a dish.

I think we (Conflux bods) might be organising a trip to both (Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla) round the time of AussieCon for overseas folks who might want to worship at the shrine of 60s space exploration.

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

The Madrid station now uses an entirely new set of antennae, too. It turned over the old one to the Spanish government, and now Spain's version of the CIA uses it for whatever spies do with that sort of big listening device.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

Neat! I love space stuff!