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US and Australia Collaborate to Enhance GPS Resilience in Contested Environments
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By European Space Agency
Image: This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows part of one of the world’s natural wonders – the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea off the east coast of Queensland, Australia.
Zoom in to explore this image at its full resolution or click on the circles to learn more.
The Great Barrier Reef extends for nearly 2300 km and covers an area of more than 344 000 sq km, approximately the size of Italy. It is the largest living organism on Earth and the only living thing the naked eye can see from space.
Despite its name, the Great Barrier Reef is not a single reef, but an interlinked system of about 3000 reefs and 900 coral islands, divided by narrow passages. An area of biodiversity equal in importance to tropical rainforests, the reef hosts more than 1500 species of tropical fish, 400 types of coral, hundreds of species of bird and seaweed and thousands of marine animals, including sharks, barracuda and turtles.
In recognition of its significance the reef was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
The section of reef seen here is the southern part off the coast of the Shire of Livingstone in Central Queensland. Part of the mainland and the islands surrounding the coast are visible in the bottom left corner. The tan-coloured sea along the coasts is due to sediment in the water.
A chain of small coral islands can be seen scattered across the centre of the image. The blue hues of the coral contrast with the dark waters of the Coral Sea.
Part of the reef is covered by clouds dominating the upper part of the image. The clouds form a surprisingly straight line, also visible as a distinct shadow cast over the islands below.
Coral reefs worldwide suffer regular damage due to climate change, pollution, ocean acidification and fishing. Furthermore, they are increasingly under threat from coral bleaching, which occurs when the algae that makes up the coral die, causing it to turn white. This phenomenon is associated with increased water temperatures, low salinity and high sunlight levels.
While these coral reefs are ecologically important, they are difficult to map from survey vessels or aircraft because of their remote and shallow location. From their vantage point in space, Earth-observing satellites such as Copernicus Sentinel-2, offer the means to monitor the health of reefs across the globe.
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The radio antennas of NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex are lo-cated near the Australian capital. It’s one of three Deep Space Network facilities around the world that keep the agency in contact with dozens of space missions Located at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve near the Australian capital city, the Canberra complex joined the Deep Space Network on March 19, 1965, with one 85-foot-wide (26-meter-wide) radio antenna. The dish, called Deep Space Station 42, was decommis-sioned in 2000. This photograph shows the facility in 1965.NASA Canberra joined the global network in 1965 and operates four radio antennas. Now, preparations have begun on its fifth as NASA works to increase the network’s capacity.
NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia celebrated its 60th anniversary on March 19 while also breaking ground on a new radio antenna. The pair of achievements are major milestones for the network, which communicates with spacecraft all over the solar system using giant dish antennas located at three complexes around the globe.
Canberra’s newest addition, Deep Space Station 33, will be a 112-foot-wide (34-meter-wide) multifrequency beam-waveguide antenna. Buried mostly below ground, a massive concrete pedestal will house cutting-edge electronics and receivers in a climate-controlled room and provide a sturdy base for the reflector dish, which will rotate during operations on a steel platform called an alidade.
Suzanne Dodd, the director for the Interplanetary Network Directorate at JPL, addresses an audience at the Deep Space Network’s Canberra complex on March 19, 2025. That day marked 60 years since the Australian facility joined the network.NASA “As we look back on 60 years of incredible accomplishments at Canberra, the groundbreaking of a new antenna is a symbol for the next 60 years of scientific discovery,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Building cutting-edge antennas is also a symbol of how the Deep Space Network embraces new technologies to enable the exploration of a growing fleet of space missions.”
When it goes online in 2029, the new Canberra dish will be the last of six parabolic dishes constructed under NASA’s Deep Space Network Aperture Enhancement Program, which is helping to support current and future spacecraft and the increased volume of data they provide. The network’s Madrid facility christened a new dish in 2022, and the Goldstone, California, facility is putting the finishing touches on a new antenna.
Canberra’s Role
The Deep Space Network was officially founded on Dec. 24, 1963, when NASA’s early ground stations, including Goldstone, were connected to the new network control center at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Called the Space Flight Operations Facility, that building remains the center through which data from the three global complexes flows.
The Madrid facility joined in 1964, and Canberra went online in 1965, going on to help support hundreds of missions, including the Apollo Moon landings.
Three eye-catching posters featuring the larger 230-foot (70-meter) antennas located at the three Deep Space Network complexes around the world.NASA/JPL-Caltech “Canberra has played a crucial part in tracking, communicating, and collecting data from some of the most momentous missions in space history,” said Kevin Ferguson, director of the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. “As the network continues to advance and grow, Canberra will continue to play a key role in supporting humanity’s exploration of the cosmos.”
By being spaced equidistant from one another around the globe, the complexes can provide continual coverage of spacecraft, no matter where they are in the solar system as Earth rotates. There is an exception, however: Due to Canberra’s location in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the only one that can send commands to, and receive data from, Voyager 2 as it heads south almost 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) through interstellar space. More than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away, Voyager 1 sends its data down to the Madrid and Goldstone complexes, but it, too, can only receive commands via Canberra.
New Technologies
In addition to constructing more antennas like Canberra’s Deep Space Station 33, NASA is looking to the future by also experimenting with laser, or optical, communications to enable significantly more data to flow to and from Earth. The Deep Space Network currently relies on radio frequencies to communicate, but laser operates at a higher frequency, allowing more data to be transmitted.
As part of that effort, NASA is flying the laser-based Deep Space Optical Communications experiment with the agency’s Psyche mission. Since the October 2023 launch, it has demonstrated high data rates over record-breaking distances and downlinked ultra-high definition streaming video from deep space.
“These new technologies have the potential to boost the science and exploration returns of missions traveling throughout the solar system,” said Amy Smith, deputy project manager for the Deep Space Networkat JPL, which manages the network. “Laser and radio communications could even be combined to build hybrid antennas, or dishes that can communicate using both radio and optical frequencies at the same time. That could be a game changer for NASA.”
For more information about the Deep Space Network, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/dsn/
NASA’s New Deep Space Network Antenna Has Its Crowning Moment NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser VIDEO: How Do We Know Where Faraway Spacecraft Are? News Media Contact
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
2024-048
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By Space Force
Another National Security Space Launch mission will deliver a GPS III space vehicle to orbit on a rapid response schedule, demonstrating a continual level of responsiveness by SSC and SpOC.
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By Space Force
Avalon is the Southern Hemisphere’s largest airshow and aerospace and defense exposition. During the 2025 event, multiple industry exhibits, keynote speakers and engagements focused on current priorities and future development of space concerns.
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By NASA
3 Min Read NASA Successfully Acquires GPS Signals on Moon
An artist's concept of the Blue Ghost lunar lander receiving GNSS signals from Earth. Credits: NASA/Dave Ryan NASA and the Italian Space Agency made history on March 3, when the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) became the first technology demonstration to acquire and track Earth-based navigation signals on the Moon’s surface.
The LuGRE payload’s success in lunar orbit and on the surface indicates that signals from the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) can be received and tracked at the Moon. These results mean NASA’s Artemis missions, or other exploration missions, could benefit from these signals to accurately and autonomously determine their position, velocity, and time. This represents a steppingstone to advanced navigation systems and services for the Moon and Mars.
An artist’s concept of the LuGRE payload on Blue Ghost and its three main records in transit to the Moon, in lunar orbit and on the Moon’s surface.NASA/Dave Ryan “On Earth we can use GNSS signals to navigate in everything from smartphones to airplanes,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Program. “Now, LuGRE shows us that we can successfully acquire and track GNSS signals at the Moon. This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.”
This is a very exciting discovery for lunar navigation, and we hope to leverage this capability for future missions.
Kevin Coggins
Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA SCaN
The road to the historic milestone began on March 2 when the Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down on the Moon and delivered LuGRE, one of 10 NASA payloads intended to advance lunar science. Soon after landing, LuGRE payload operators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began conducting their first science operation on the lunar surface.
Members from NASA and Italian Space Agency watching the Blue Ghost lunar lander touch down on the Moon. NASA With the receiver data flowing in, anticipation mounted. Could a Moon-based mission acquire and track signals from two GNSS constellations, GPS and Galileo, and use those signals for navigation on the lunar surface?
Then, at 2 a.m. EST on March 3, it was official: LuGRE acquired and tracked signals on the lunar surface for the first time ever and achieved a navigation fix — approximately 225,000 miles away from Earth.
Now that Blue Ghost is on the Moon, the mission will operate for 14 days providing NASA and the Italian Space Agency the opportunity to collect data in a near-continuous mode, leading to additional GNSS milestones. In addition to this record-setting achievement, LuGRE is the first Italian Space Agency developed hardware on the Moon, a milestone for the organization.
The LuGRE payload also broke GNSS records on its journey to the Moon. On Jan. 21, LuGRE surpassed the highest altitude GNSS signal acquisition ever recorded at 209,900 miles from Earth, a record formerly held by NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. Its altitude record continued to climb as LuGRE reached lunar orbit on Feb. 20 — 243,000 miles from Earth. This means that missions in cislunar space, the area of space between Earth and the Moon, could also rely on GNSS signals for navigation fixes.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander captured its first sunrise on the Moon, marking the beginning of the lunar day and the start of surface operations in its new home. Firefly Aerospace Traditionally, NASA engineers track spacecraft by using a combination of measurements, including onboard sensors and signals from Earth-based tracking stations. The LuGRE payload demonstrates that using GNSS signals for navigation can reduce reliance on human operators because these signals can be picked up and used autonomously by the spacecraft, even as far away as the Moon.
The LuGRE payload is a collaborative effort between NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the Italian Space Agency. Funding and oversight for the LuGRE payload comes from NASA’s SCaN Program office. It was chosen by NASA as one of 10 funded research and technology demonstrations for delivery to the lunar surface by Firefly Aerospace Inc., a flight under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
Learn more about LuGRE: https://go.nasa.gov/41qwwQN
The joint NASA and Italian Space Agency LuGRE team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA About the Author
Katherine Schauer
Katherine Schauer is a writer for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, exploration activities, and more.
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Last Updated Mar 04, 2025 EditorGoddard Digital TeamContactKatherine Schauerkatherine.s.schauer@nasa.govLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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