DSS 14

DSS 14 is a giant 70-metre radio antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, one of three 70-metre dishes in NASA's Deep Space Network.

About DSS 14

The antenna weighs about 2,970 tons and its 41,400-square-foot reflecting surface is maintained to a precision within half an inch (about 1 cm) across the whole dish, allowing it to communicate with spacecraft billions of kilometres away. It also carries the Goldstone Solar System Radar, the only fully steerable planetary radar system in the world.

History

DSS 14 first received a signal on March 18, 1966, from the Mariner 4 Mars flyby mission. It was enlarged from a 64-metre to a 70-metre dish in 1988 to support Voyager 2's encounter with Neptune. In September 2025 the antenna suffered a mishap while tracking the Juno mission, causing several million dollars in damage, and it has since been offline for extended maintenance and repairs.

Location & getting there

The antenna stands at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California. The map above shows the exact coordinates.

Visiting

Goldstone is an active NASA communications facility with restricted access rather than a general tourist site; check official NASA or JPL channels for any current tour or visitor information before planning a trip.

See your named star from here

Once you have named a star through one of our star packages, we hand you its exact right ascension and declination. Any observatory staff member with a computerised telescope, including a team at this part of the Deep Space Network, can slew to those coordinates and point the eyepiece straight at "your" star. Browse the catalogue to see how a naming looks, or check our list of observatories to plan a visit.