The Near Earth Network (NEN, formerly GN or Ground Network) provides orbital communications support for near-Earth orbiting customer platforms via various ground stations, operated by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

and other space agencies. It uses a number of different dishes scattered around the globe. The antennas must be able to move fast for tracking of objects in

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

(LEO). The NEN and SN combined were previously referred to as the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN).

Ground stations

NEN uses several stations run by NASA: * Alaska Satellite Facility in

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the p ...

— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 11.3m/11m/9.1m * Kennedy Uplink Station, Merritt Island Launch Annex (MILA)— Supports: S-band - Assets: 6.1m * McMurdo,

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 10m * Ponce de Leon Station,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

— Supports: S-band - Assets: 6.

* Wallops Ground Station, in

Wallops Island Wallops Island is a island in Accomack County, Virginia, part of the Virginia Barrier Islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States of America. It is just south of Chincoteague Island, a popular tourist destination. W ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

— Supports: VHF, S/X Band — Assets: 11m/5m * White Sands Ground Station,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

— Supports: VHF, S/Ka Band — Assets: 18.3m NEN uses Stations run by KSAT — Kongsberg Satellite Services: * Singapore, Malaysia — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 9.1m *

Svalbard Satellite Station Svalbard Satellite Station ( no, Svalbard satellittstasjon) or SvalSat is a satellite ground station located on Platåberget near Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. Opened in 1997, it is operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), a joint ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 11.3m/11.3m/13m * TrollSat,

— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 7.3m/7.3m NEN uses a Station run by SANSA —

South African National Space Agency The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) is South Africa's government agency responsible for the promotion and development of aeronautics and aerospace space research. It fosters cooperation in space-related activities and research in sp ...

: * Hartebeesthoek,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 12m/10m * A new ground station is under construction in

Matjiesfontein Matjiesfontein is a settlement in Central Karoo District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History The original inhabitants of the region were the Khoikhoi herders and the San hunter gatherers. Following the arrival of ...

, scheduled to come online in 2025. NEN uses Stations run by SSC — Swedish Space Corporation * Kiruna, Sweden — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 13m/13m *

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, Chile— Supports: S Band — Assets: 9m/12m/13m * Space US North Pole, Alaska— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 5m/7.3m/11m/13m * SSC Space US Dongara, Australia — Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 13m * Space US South Point,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

— Supports: S/X Band — Assets: 13m/13m Also under contract was Poker Flat Research Range. Additionally, the MILA and Wallops stations provide pre-launch, launch, and landing communications support for the

Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...

Authority and responsibility

The NEN falls under NASA's SOMD (Space Operations Mission Directorate), interoperating with the SCaN Program offices. The Goddard Space Flight Center Ground Network Project has responsibility for maintaining the NEN, as well as implementing the

Satellite laser ranging In satellite laser ranging (SLR) a global network of observation stations measures the round trip time of flight of ultrashort pulses of light to satellites equipped with retroreflectors. This provides instantaneous range measurements of milli ...

(SLR) Network.

Support for Constellation

The NEN was slated to support the

Constellation Program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a " ...

, including the Ares launch vehicle, NISN ( NASA Integrated Services Network), FDF (Flight Dynamics Facilities), KSC Launch Control Center, and the Constellation Mission Control Center (MCC). Constellation has since been canceled.

References

Footnotes

* Constellation Architecture Requirements Document (CARD), CxP 70000, Revision C (December 25, 2008). NASA: Constellation Systems Engineering and Integration Office * Space Network User's Guide (SNUG), 450-SNUG, Rev 9.

External links