Historical Photo Of The Month - December 2003

Resurfacing the Pioneer Antenna
Photograph Number 332-4134A

On December 24, 1963, JPL Director William Pickering sent a memo to all managers and supervisors, announcing the establishment of the Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN was a merger of the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility, Interstation Communications, and the mission-independent portion of the Space Flight Operations Facility. It was placed under the management of Eberhart Rechtin, then Assistant Laboratory Director for Tracking and Data Acquisition.

The photo above shows workers resurfacing the Pioneer antenna at Goldstone Tracking Station in the Mojave Desert of California in December 1963. In order to increase the surface accuracy and performance of antennas throughout the DSN, new reflector surface panels were installed, as needed. A 1964 DSN Progress Report described design requirements of antenna reflector surface panels, such as "...must accept without permanent deformation the load of a 300-lb. man standing on one foot" and "... must survive ... a hailstorm producing hailstones with diameters up to 1 in."

For more information about the history of the Deep Space Network, see the DSN History web site or the online Interplanetary Network Progress Report from 1971 to the present. Contact the JPL Archives to see the earlier set of Progress Reports, from 1959 to 1971.

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