ESA image of the Day : Goonhilly

Goonhilly Earth Station, a commercial tracking station in Cornwall, UK, will be upgraded to provide Europe’s first deep-space services on a commercial basis. Under the project, the station’s GHY-6 antenna (seen here), built in 1985 and featuring a 32 m-diameter dish, will be upgraded to provide high bit-rate data links for missions far from Earth – typically exceeding 2 million km. These include not only missions to our somewhat closer Moon, but also to the asteroids and planetary destinations such as Mars.

Credit : GES - Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd.