The Deep Space Network Acquires Artemis II Signal

A graphical representation of the Deep Space Network’s radio frequency antennas indicate signal acquisition from NASA’s Artemis II mission to the Moon on April 1, 2026, inside the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Two antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, Deep Space Station 54 and 56, can be seen communicating with Artemis II (the signals are labelled “EM2”, short for “Exploration Mission 2”; elsewhere they are labelled “ART2” for “Artemis II”).

A similar visualization can be found at DSN Now, which details all the missions that the network is communicating with 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The Space Flight Operations Facility operates the DSN, which comprises of three complexes in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. Each complex consists of several radio frequency antennas that communicate with dozens of spacecraft exploring the solar system in addition to the Artemis II mission. 

The DSN is managed by JPL for the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation program, which is located at NASA Headquarters within the Space Operations Mission Directorate. The DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft. JPL is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, for NASA.