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Loading contentThe deep-space and near-Earth communication networks — NASA's DSN, ESA's Estrack, the Near Space Network, and the national and commercial networks.
China's deep-space tracking network, operated for CNSA, with large antennas at Jiamusi (66 m) and Kashgar (35 m) in China and a station in Argentina. It supports China's lunar (Chang'e) and planetary (Tianwen) missions.
A growing set of commercial providers — such as KSAT, SSC, and Goonhilly — that offer deep-space and near-Earth ground-station support on a service basis, augmenting the government networks as mission traffic grows. NASA's Near Space Network increasingly buys commercial services alongside its own antennas.
NASA's international array of giant radio antennas — the backbone of deep-space communication and navigation. Three complexes spaced about 120° apart in longitude (Goldstone, Madrid, Canberra) keep any distant spacecraft in view as Earth rotates, providing tracking, telemetry, command, and radiometric navigation for missions across the Solar System and beyond.
The European Space Agency's global tracking-station network, including deep-space antennas at New Norcia (Australia), Cebreros (Spain), and Malargüe (Argentina). It provides communication and navigation for ESA's interplanetary missions and cross-supports partner agencies.
ISRO's deep-space network, centred on the 32 m and 18 m antennas at Byalalu near Bengaluru. It provided tracking and communication for the Chandrayaan lunar missions and the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan).
Japan's deep-space tracking network, run by JAXA/ISAS, centred on the Usuda Deep Space Center in Nagano (a 64 m antenna) and the newer 54 m Misasa antenna. It supported the Hayabusa asteroid missions and Japan's other deep-space probes.
NASA's network for missions near Earth — out to roughly the Moon and the Sun–Earth Lagrange points — formed by merging the ground-based Near Earth Network with the space-based Space Network (the TDRS relay satellites). It provides direct-to-ground and relay links, and now hosts optical (laser) communication demonstrations.
Russia's deep-space communication facilities, operated by Roscosmos, with large antennas at Ussuriysk in the Far East and historically at Bear Lakes and Yevpatoria (Crimea). It descends from the Soviet deep-space network that supported the Luna, Venera, and Mars probes.