We provide operational support for the European Space Agency's deep space ground station in Australia, which is essential for communicating with spacecraft voyaging across our Solar System.
Located 130 kilometres north-east of Perth in Western Australia, the New Norcia ground station is one of three deep space stations in the European Space Agency (ESA)'s tracking station network; the other two are located in Cebreros, Spain and in Malargüe, Argentina.
ESA's ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, remotely controls its interplanetary and astronomy spacecraft and Earth-orbiting satellites via the Estrack network.
A 35-metre antenna at the station, DSA-1, provides support to ESA's missions exploring our Solar System and observing our galaxy and Universe. It tracks their locations, sends control commands, and reliably receives their scientific data gathered hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth.
The ESA tracking station at New Norcia, Western Australia. ©ESA/S. Marti
The ESA tracking station at New Norcia, Western Australia. ©ESA/S. Marti
These missions include:
In addition to supporting ESA missions, the station provides tracking support to scientific and interplanetary missions operated by other space agencies like NASA and Japan's JAXA under resource-sharing agreements.
Using its smaller, 4.5-m diameter antenna, NNO-2, the New Norcia station also provides critical tracking services for Ariane, Soyuz and Vega launchers lifting off from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana.
In December 2019, ESA announced that they would be constructing their fourth deep space antenna in their global ESTRACK network at the New Norcia ground station. The new antenna is expected to begin operations by mid-2024 and will support upcoming missions including JUICE and Hera.