ESA to build a deep space ground station in Cebreros, Spain (Forwarded)

European Space Agency
Press Release No. 45-2003
Paris, France 18 July 2003

ESA to build a deep space ground station in Cebreros (Spain)

Communicating with ESA’s spacecraft such as Mars Express, or SMART-1, Rosetta
and Venus Express -- yet to be launched -- will be even easier and more
effective when the new Cebreros ground station, near Avila (Spain), becomes
operational in September 2005.

On 22 July, in Madrid, the Director General of ESA, Jean-Jacques Dordain, the
Spanish Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Fernando Díez Moreno, and the Spanish
Secretary of State for Science and Technology, Mr Pedro Morenés Eulate, will
sign an agreement between ESA and the Kingdom of Spain that will pave the way
for the installation of a new high-performance deep-space tracking station in
Cebreros.

Communicating with spacecraft over very long distances, probes that have to be
controlled remotely, together with their on board instruments, at distances up
to 900 million kilometres from Earth (more than six times the distance from
Earth to the sun) require huge and powerful antennas.

Through its control Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt (Germany), responsible for all
spacecraft operations, ESA already has long experience of dealing with a large
network of ground stations and antennas, including a 35 m deep-space antenna in
New Norcia, north of Perth in Australia.

Back in the 1970s, ESA signed an agreement with Spain to use a satellite
tracking station located at Villafranca del Castillo (Villanueva de la Cañada,
Madrid). ESA/Villafranca has now become one of the most highly specialised
spacecraft tracking stations in the world.

To support the new project and allow ESA to take a further step towards a real
European Deep Space Network, the Government of Spain will grant the European
Space Agency a 75-year lease on two plots of land that belong to the Ministry of
Defence. One plot will accommodate the space tracking facilities and the 35m
diameter deep-space antenna. The other will serve for the calibration tower,
used to simulate the signals transmitted by spacecraft for testing. Construction
work is scheduled to start in September this year.

"The new capabilities of the future antenna at Cebreros will significantly
support the role of ESA in Spain. Moreover, in terms of radio-electric
conditions, the Cebreros environment is perfect, and will give this new site an
important growth potential," according to ESA’s Director of Technical and
Operational Support, Gaele Winters.

The network of antennas in Spain (Cebreros (Avila), Villafranca del Castillo
(Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid) and Robledo (Robledo de Chavela, Madrid, owned
by NASA/JPL), will soon be one of the most important groups of satellite
tracking stations worldwide, due to the optimum environment free of
radio-electric disturbances, and will make a valuable additional contribution to
the scientific and technological framework of European space activities.

For further information:

Valeriano Claros
Director of the ESA Villafranca Satellite Ground Station
Tel. +34 91 813 11 11
Fax. +34 91 813 12 12

ESA Communication Department
Media Relations Service
Tel: + 33 1 5369 7155
Fax. + 33 1 5369 7690

For information on how to attend the signature ceremony:

Monica Oerke, Corporate Communication
ESA/Villafranca
Tel.: +34 91 813 13 27
Fax: +34 91 813 12 19

Further information:

Media Relations Service
Tel: +33.(0)1.5369.7155
Fax: +33.(0)1.5369.7690

More information

* ESA Tracking Stations
http://www.esoc.esa.de/pr/facilities/estrack.php3

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[Image 1:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM2..._index_1.html]
View of the lot to host the tracking station facilities and antenna.

A new deep-space tracking station is to be built in Cebreros near Avila in
Spain. The ground station will become operational in September 2005.

[Image 2:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM2...html#subhead1]
View of small building currently on the lot that will host the facilities and
antenna and that will refurbished and used as offices until the permanent
facilities are built.