Maspalomas Station
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Maspalomas Station is an
INTA Inta (russian: Инта́, kv, Инта) is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia. Population: History Inta was founded circa 1940 as a settlement to support a geological expedition to explore coal deposits and projecting of mines. The city's n ...
-operated, ESTRACK
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...
ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...
for communication with
spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
located at the southern area of Gran Canaria island, on the
INTA Inta (russian: Инта́, kv, Инта) is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia. Population: History Inta was founded circa 1940 as a settlement to support a geological expedition to explore coal deposits and projecting of mines. The city's n ...
campus. It is situated on the Montaña Blanca hill and is visible from the coastal resort of
Meloneras Meloneras is a tourist town on the south coast of the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, part of the town of Maspalomas in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. It is mostly characterised by tourist hotels and other accommodation. ...
, close to
Maspalomas Maspalomas () is a tourist resort in the south of the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, stretching from Bahía Feliz in the east to Meloneras in the west, including the resort towns of San Agustín and Playa del Inglés and San Fernando. ...
. It was originally established in the 1960s to support
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's nascent
human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...
program.


History

From the 1950s the momentum was growing in the
Space Race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...
to develop
spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...
. A need arose for an international network of
tracking station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...
s around the globe to communicate with satellites and crewed
space capsule A space capsule is an often-crewed spacecraft that uses a blunt-body reentry capsule to reenter the Earth's atmosphere without wings. Capsules are distinguished from other satellites primarily by the ability to survive reentry and return a payl ...
s and to control their flight trajectory. On 18 March 1960, the Spanish and
US Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...
s signed an agreement to establish a
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
satellite ground station on Gran Canaria, the first in Spain. The location was chosen because Maspalomas is on the same latitude as
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...
, with the two locations separated only by the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. The original Maspalomas Station was built by NASA close to the
Maspalomas Lighthouse The Maspalomas Lighthouse ( es, Faro de Maspalomas) is an active 19th century lighthouse at the southern end of the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, in the Canary archipelago. It lies at one end of the Maspalomas beach, south of the resort to ...
in 1960. It was initially set to provide support for NASA's first human spaceflight mission, the Mercury Program, one of 14 such stations in the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN) distributed around the globe. It came into operation on 13 September 1961 to support the
Mercury-Atlas 4 Mercury-Atlas 4 was an uncrewed spaceflight of the Mercury program. It was launched on September 13, 1961, at 14:09 UTC from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. A Crewman Simulator instrument package was aboard. The craft orbited the Ea ...
test flight, and continued to take part in Mercury missions, including
John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...
’s Mercury-Atlas 6 Earth orbit. Subsequently, Maspalomas participated in the ground control network for NASA's crewed flight programme
Project Gemini Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...
(1965-1966). The expansion of tourism in the southern part of Grand Canaria threatened the radio quiet zone around Maspalomas station. NASA agreed with
INTA Inta (russian: Инта́, kv, Инта) is a town in the Komi Republic, Russia. Population: History Inta was founded circa 1940 as a settlement to support a geological expedition to explore coal deposits and projecting of mines. The city's n ...
and the Spanish Government to move operations to a new, more remote site several kilometres away from the original site. The new ground station retained the name of Maspalomas. Maspalomas Station continued to provide support for international space missions, including the launch of early
communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...
s by
Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...
, who named their third satellite,
Intelsat II F-3 Intelsat II F-3, also known as Canary Bird was a communications satellite operated by Intelsat. Launched in 1967 it was operated in geostationary orbit, spending most of its operational life at a longitude of 15 degrees west. The third of four ...
, ''Canary Bird'' after the Canary Islands.


Apollo program

Maspalomas Station supported a number of prominent NASA missions, including the Apollo program, the
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as a United States Apollo spacecraft docked ...
and the
Skylab Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations in ...
space station. For the
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
mission that landed the first humans on Moon in July 1969, Maspalomas Station acted as one of the receiving station for transmissions from the Apollo crew and relayed them to Houston using an analog link via London. On 16 July, at about sixteen and half minutes into the flight, the station in the Canary Islands acquired a signal from Apollo 11 for several minutes after the loss of signal to the USNS ''Vanguard'' positioned in the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. Because of its location, Maspalomas was the first ground station to make contact with Apollo spacecraft once they entered orbit. During the Moon landing on 20 July, Maspalomas provided the real-time backup for the MSFN station at the former Fresnedillas Station,
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
(now the
Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC), in Spanish and officially ''Complejo de Comunicaciones de Espacio Profundo de Madrid'', is a satellite ground station located in Robledo de Chavela, Spain, and operated by the Instituto Naci ...
) while the Apollo 11 crew made their first steps onto the Moon. In October 1969, in recognition of the role played by Maspalomas Station, the Apollo 11 crew visited Gran Canaria as part of their 38-day world tour and stayed at the newly built Oasis Hotel in Maspalomas.


Later missions

After the Apollo Missions, Maspalomas supported a number of other important NASA projects, including the monitoring of the
Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) comprised a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site of each of the five Apollo missions to land on the Moon following Apollo 11 (Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16, ...
(ALSEP), a set of scientific instruments left by astronauts at the various Apollo landing sites, and the
Skylab Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations in ...
missions. In 1975, after the end of the Skylab 4 and the Apollo–Soyuz missions, NASA decommissioned Maspalomas Station and most of the functions were transferred to Madrid. Equipment from Maspalomas Station was sent over to the NASA station at
Tananarive Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...
, on
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
(part of the
Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network The Spacecraft Tracking and Data (Acquisition) Network (STADAN or STDN) was established by NASA in the early 1960s to satisfy the requirement for long-duration, highly available space-to-ground communications. The network was the “follow-on” ...
). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, ESA began to expand operations in Spain, establishing the Villafranca Station in 1978. Maspalomas Station was reopened in 1979 by the Comisión Nacional de Investigación del Espacio and INTA to provide services for ESA and NASDA (now JAXA) and for programmes such as
Hispasat Hispasat is the operating company for a number of Spanish communications satellites that cover the Americas, Europe and North Africa from orbital positions 30.0° West and 61.0° West. It was formed in 1989 and its activities include provision ...
,
Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...
and the
International Cospas-Sarsat Programme The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme is a satellite-aided search and rescue (SAR) initiative. It is organized as a treaty-based, nonprofit, intergovernmental, humanitarian cooperative of 45 nations and agencies (see infobox). It is dedi ...
.


Facilities

Maspalomas Station holds a 15-metre (50 foot)
parabolic antenna A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or pa ...
which receives S- and X-band and transmits in S-band. The site also has
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
tracking,
telemetry Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...
, telecommand and
radiometry Radiometry is a set of techniques for measurement, measuring electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. Radiometric techniques in optics characterize the distribution of the radiation's power (physics), power in space, as opposed to phot ...
facilities. The station regularly provides support for missions for the
European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
(ESA) via the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in
Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, Germany, including the Cluster satellite mission, MetOp-2 and the SMART-1 Moon mission. Maspalomas has also supported other international space projects, among them missions for the
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States. EUMETSAT's primary ...
(EUMETSAT) and for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (including the
ETS-VII The ETS-VII, or Engineering Test Satellite No. 7, was a satellite developed and launched by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). It is also known as KIKU-7. It was launched aboard an H-II rocket from Tanegashima Space Center, o ...
rendezvous mission); South Korea's Kompsat-2; and the International Satellite System For Search and Rescue,
COSPAS-SARSAT The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme is a satellite-aided search and rescue (SAR) initiative. It is organized as a treaty-based, nonprofit, intergovernmental, humanitarian cooperative of 45 nations and agencies (see infobox). It is dedi ...
. The facility has been commissioned to support China's forthcoming Chang'e 5 mission to retrieve samples of Moon rock (postponed to 2019).


References


Citations


Sources

* * *


External links


ESA webpage on ESTRACK, including links to all stations

ESA/ESTRACK Maspalomas station page

INTA Maspalomas station page

Video featuring 360° rotation of a main dish in Maspalomas Station
{{Gran Canaria European Space Agency ESTRACK facilities Buildings and structures in Gran Canaria Earth stations in Spain NASA facilities Science and technology in Gran Canaria 1960 establishments in Spain INTA facilities