ESA crowns new deep-space antenna in Australia

This September, the construction of the New Norcia 3 deep-space antenna completed a critical milestone with the lift of its 122-tonne satellite dish.

A giant is waking up. As the sun is setting over the Australian outback, the workers can finally rest after tirelessly crowning ESA’s future deep-space antenna: New Norcia 3. For over a day, they used an enormous crane on the island-continent capable of lifting this colossal antenna dish weighing 122 tonnes and measuring 35 metres in diameter.

With the antenna dish and its antenna quadrupole now installed, ESA is on track to inaugurate its fourth deep-space station by the end of 2025. Referred as NNO-3, the New Norcia 3 antenna will allow space-faring missions to send and receive more data from the ground: precious data collected from onboard scientific instruments, but also vital flight instructions for mission operations.