NASA's Deep Space Network Links Up With Artemis II
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- Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, at 6:35 p.m. EDT, with NASA's Near Space Network initially handling communications with the Orion capsule before handing off to the Deep Space Network.
- The Deep Space Network acquired the Artemis II radio frequency signal, indicated by a data-signal peak on monitors at the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
- The DSN is communicating with a crewed spacecraft traveling through deep space for the first time in over 50 years, per NASA.
- The DSN comprises three complexes in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia, each with multiple radio frequency antennas that also communicate with dozens of robotic solar-system exploration missions.
- JPL manages the DSN for NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate, and is itself managed by Caltech in Pasadena for NASA.
Why it matters: The DSN's first crewed deep-space handoff in 50 years validates the network as the communications backbone for NASA's return-to-the-moon program, simultaneously demonstrating it can support Artemis II while continuing its existing portfolio of dozens of robotic deep-space missions across three global antenna complexes.
