here are thousands of satellites and spacecraft whizzing around in the Solar System. But how do scientists communicate with them? This job largely belongs to the Deep Space Network (DSN), a complex array of giant radio antennae that canvas the cosmos to stay connected with spacecraft. Operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the DSN has been around since 1958, when radio tracking stations were installed in Nigeria, Singapore and California. In its debut mission, the network of dish-shaped antennae helped Earth-based controllers guide Explorer 1, the first military satellite, into orbit. Now
