Soviet Deep Space Network
Encyclopedia
The Soviet Deep Space Network is a network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports interplanetary spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....

 missions, and radio and radar astronomy
Radar astronomy
Radar astronomy is a technique of observing nearby astronomical objects by reflecting microwaves off target objects and analyzing the echoes. This research has been conducted for six decades. Radar astronomy differs from radio astronomy in that the latter is a passive observation and the former an...

 observations for the exploration of the solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

 and the universe. It was built to support the space missions of the Soviet Union. Other similar networks include ESTRACK
ESTRACK
The European Space Operations Centre operates a number of ground-based space-tracking stations for the European Space Agency known as the European Space Tracking network. The stations support various ESA spacecraft and facilitate communications between ground operators and scientific probes such...

 of the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

, the Deep Space Network
Deep Space Network
The Deep Space Network, or DSN, is a world-wide network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions. It also performs radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe, and supports selected...

 of the United States NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

, the Indian Deep Space Network
Indian Deep Space Network
The Indian Deep Space Network is a network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports the interplanetary spacecraft missions of India. It is located at Byalalu, a village about 100 km from Bangalore, India. It was officially inaugurated on 17 October 2008 by ISRO chairman...

, and the Chinese Deep Space Network
Chinese Deep Space Network
The Chinese Deep Space Network is a network of large antennas and communication facilities that supports the lunar and interplanetary spacecraft missions of China....

.

History

The first Soviet space network had 13 stations and was designed to track Earth orbiting satellites. Interplanetary missions require larger antennas, more powerful transmitters, and more sensitive receivers, and this effort was started in 1959 to support the planned 1960 launch of the Venera
Venera
The Venera series probes were developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather data from Venus, Venera being the Russian name for Venus...

 series of missions to Venus and the Mars program of spacecraft to Mars. The selected design consisted of eight 16 meter dishes placed on two hull
Submarine hull
The term light hull is used to describe the outer hull of a submarine, which houses the pressure hull, providing hydrodynamically efficient shape, but not holding pressure difference...

s of diesel submarines, welded together and laid down on the railway bridge trusses. These trusses were mounted on bearings from battleship gun turrets
Stalingrad Class Battlecruiser
The Stalingrad-class battlecruiser, also known in the Soviet Union as Project 82 , was intended to be built for the Soviet Navy after World War II. Three ships were ordered, but none were ever completed....

.. Three such antennas were built - the two North stations for receiving, and the south station a few kilometers away for transmitting.

In 1978, these antennas were augmented by the 70 meter antennas at Yevpatoria and Ussuriisk.

Facilities

There are three main antennas in this Deep Space Network:
  • A 70 meter antenna
    Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope
    The Yevpatoria RT-70 radio telescope is an RT-70 radio telescope and planetary radar at the Center for Deep Space Communications, Yevpatoria, Crimea, Ukraine. In the scientific literature is often called Evpatoria planetary radar .With its 70m antenna diameter, it is among the largest single dish...

     at Yevpatoria
  • A 64 meter antenna at Bear Lakes
  • A 70 meter antenna
    Galenki RT-70 radio telescope
    The Galenki RT-70 radio telescope is an RT-70 telescope at the East Center for Deep Space Communications, Galenki , Russia.With its 70m antenna diameter, it is among the largest single dish radio telescopes in the world.- See also :...

     at Ussuriisk

Missions

Some of the Soviet space program
Soviet space program
The Soviet space program is the rocketry and space exploration programs conducted by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991...

 missions that have communicated by the Soviet DSN include:
  • Venera 11
    Venera 11
    The Venera 11 was a USSR unmanned space mission part of the Venera program to explore the planet Venus. Venera 11 was launched on 9 September 1978 at 3:25:39 UTC....

     and Venera 12
    Venera 12
    The Venera 12 was an USSR unmanned space mission to explore the planet Venus. Venera 12 was launched on 14 September 1978 at 02:25:13 UTC. Separating from its flight platform on December 19, 1978, the lander entered the Venus atmosphere two days later at 11.2 km/s. During the descent, it...

  • Venera 13
    Venera 13
    Venera 13 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.Venera 13 and 14 were identical spacecraft built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart, Venera 13 on 1981-10-30 at 06:04:00 UTC and Venera 14 on 1981-11-04 at 05:31:00 UTC,...

    , Venera 14
    Venera 14
    Venera 14 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.Venera 14 was identical to the Venera 13 spacecraft and built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart...

    , Venera 15
    Venera 15
    Venera 15 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. This unmanned orbiter was to map the surface of Venus using high resolution imaging systems...

    , Venera 16
    Venera 16
    Venera 16 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. This unmanned orbiter was to map the surface of Venus using high resolution imaging systems...

  • Vega program
    Vega program
    The Vega program was a series of Venus missions which also took advantage of the appearance of Comet Halley in 1986. Vega 1 and Vega 2 were unmanned spacecraft launched in a cooperative effort among the Soviet Union and Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland,...

  • Astron
    Astron (spacecraft)
    Astron was a Soviet spacecraft launched on 23 March 1983 at 12:45:06 UTC, using Proton launcher, which was designed to fulfill an astrophysics mission. It was based on the Venera spacecraft design and was operational for six years as the largest ultraviolet space telescope during its lifetime...

  • Phobos program
    Phobos program
    The Phobos program was an unmanned space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. Phobos 2 became a Mars orbiter and returned 38 images with a resolution of up to 40 meters...

  • Granat
    Granat
    The International Astrophysical Observatory "GRANAT" , was a Soviet space observatory developed in collaboration with France, Denmark and Bulgaria. It was launched on 1 December 1989 aboard a Proton rocket and placed in a highly eccentric four-day orbit, of which three were devoted to observations...

  • Interball
  • Spektr-R
  • Phobos-Grunt
    Phobos-Grunt
    Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. It was launched on 9 November 2011 at 02:16 local time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it...

    (in 2011)
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