April 13, 2021, was a major milestone in Aerodyne’s history – our first construction subcontract –with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to build Deep Space Station (DSS)-23, a new, fully steerable 34-meter dish antenna for NASA Deep Space Network (DSN).
Almost three years later, the antenna is rising from the sands of the Mojave Desert at JPL’s Goldstone Complex in California. It represents a future in which more missions will require advanced technology, such as lasers capable of transmitting vast amounts of data from astronauts on Mars.
Using massive antenna dishes, NASA “talks” to more than 30 deep space missions on any given day, including many international missions. When completed, DSS-23 will bring the DSN's number of operational antennas to 13.
“In general, we are 100% compete with the antenna pedestal construction and factory acceptance phase of the antenna structure, said Sey Ghamari, Vice President of Program Management and overseer of this Herculean project.
“We have received 18 sea containers so far with many more to arrive in next two months that are full of antenna structure parts from the Asturfeito factory in Spain; our near-term task is to fully assemble the alidade structure and reflector separately.
This summer we will be mating the two using a giant 400 ton lifting crane.”
To fully grasp this monumental effort, here is a video of a typical DSN antenna building process:
Built in 90 Seconds: The DSN Welcomes a New Antenna YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTE4redzJAk
Images from Goldstone:
The lower pedestal mezzanine and control rooms are complete.
The first floor of the antenna alidade is being assembled.
The antenna pedestal ramp with the Mojave Desert night sky in the background.