Multimedia Gallery
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Deep Space Network (DSN) sends signals to a spacecraft, which returns these signals to the stations on Earth.
Aircraft equipment receives microwave signals to create an image of ground features from signal time delays.
This illustration depicts NEAR-Shoemaker after landing on the asteroid Eros.
Illustration of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approaches Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, in 2015.
Opportunity Rover on Mars
Two people work on a Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California.
Unflown duplicate of Pioneer 4, an early satellite designed for lunar exploration.
Wernher von Braun, John Casani, and James Van Allen inspect the Pioneer 4 satellite.
Trajectory of Pioneer 4 from the Earth and past the Moon into orbit around the Sun.
Pioneer 4 achieved enough velocity to escape Earth’s gravity, but its trajectory past the Moon was off by a wide margin.