Cebreros Station

Cebreros Station, also known as DSA 2 or Deep Space Antenna 2, is a European Space Agency ground station for communicating with spacecraft, located about 10 km east of Cebreros and 90 km from Madrid, Spain.

About Cebreros Station

Sitting at an elevation of about 794 metres, the station is operated by the European Space Operations Centre together with INTA. Its centrepiece is a 35-metre diameter antenna, roughly 40 metres tall and weighing about 620 tonnes, capable of receiving and transmitting in X- and Ka-bands. It carries the station code "CEB" and is part of ESA's ESTRACK network, with sister stations New Norcia Station in Australia and Malargüe Station in Argentina.

History

Construction began in early 2004 and the station was inaugurated in September 2005. It made first contact with Venus Express on 10 November 2005, marking the start of its operational life. Until 2002, ESA had lacked its own means of communicating with spacecraft on distant or interplanetary orbits and had relied on NASA's network — Cebreros was part of closing that gap.

Telescopes & research

Cebreros uses Cassegrain Beam Wave Guide technology with helium-cooled amplifiers and transmitters ranging from 400 watts up to 20 kilowatts. The station currently supports missions including Mars Express, Gaia, BepiColombo, Solar Orbiter, Juice and Euclid, with future support planned for Hera, PLATO and Comet Interceptor. It also provides Delta-DOR positioning, GPS geodetic measurements and radio science capabilities, and previously supported the Rosetta and Lisa Pathfinder missions. Day-to-day operation is handled remotely from ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany, with on-site management by ISDEFE.

Location & getting there

The station sits in the hills east of the town of Cebreros, within reach of Madrid, Spain. Use the map above for exact coordinates and directions.

Visiting Cebreros Station

As an operational deep-space communications facility, Cebreros is not generally open for casual public tours. Check ESA's website for any current visitor programme before planning a trip.

See your named star from here

A station built to track spacecraft across the solar system by precise coordinates makes a fitting place to think about the exact position of a star named for someone you love. Name a star to get its right ascension and declination, then browse the catalogue to see it in context.