Historical Photo of the Month - February 2006

Goldstone Antenna
Photograph Number 333-317

In 1958, the first of three Deep Space Instrumentation Facilities was built. The 85 foot Pioneer antenna at Goldstone was used to track various spacecraft and was used in the Echo satellite experiment. Images like this 1959 labeled photo were used in technical reports describing the capabilities of the antenna.

The control building is about 100 feet behind the antenna. The boresight telescope and boresight movie camera were used for calibration, and for optical tracking of a spacecraft from the control room. The calibration antenna was used to check and align the larger receiving antenna, without interrupting normal operations. It could be pointed at the colimation tower located on a hill about one mile away or at a helicopter flying in the distance. Both were used to simulate a spacecraft signal.

Because the design of the 85 foot antenna did not allow it to track an object low on the horizon, a theodolite, or electronic optical tracking system telescope was also used.

The feed servicer, sometimes called the antenna servicer, was a small cranelike machine which could lift two people and tools up to 100 feet in the air, in order to perform maintenance on the antenna. On early antennas, the "feed" was at the very top of the structure.

Archival Sources: History Collection documents 2-587, 3-1028, 7-13, JPL Publication 30-9. For information about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives.

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