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Loading contentThe workhorse band of deep-space communication and radiometric navigation. Most interplanetary missions send their science data and are tracked on X-band, which balances data rate against antenna size and weather losses.
Signals travel at the speed of light, so one-way light-time grows with distance: about 1.3 s to the Moon, 3–22 minutes to Mars, 33–53 minutes to Jupiter, and over 22 hours to Voyager 1 — real light-time, never a fabricated fixed delay.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.