By Sarah Cope | 2025-11-03

The European Space Agency's newest deep space antenna, installed at the New Norcia site near Perth in Western Australia, is expanding Europe’s ability to communicate with spacecraft across the solar system.

The NNO-3 installation is part of the ESA's tracking station network (Estrack) and is designed to strengthen the agency’s communication infrastructure for current and future exploration missions.

The 35-meter antenna is equipped with cryogenically cooled receivers that reduce electronic noise, enabling the detection of weak signals over substantial distances.

It also features a high-power transmission system capable of transmitting commands over interplanetary distances.

Operating in X, K, and Ka frequency bands, the system can manage increasing data volumes from missions such as the ESA's Juice probe, which is on its way to study Jupiter's moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

It also will receive data from the BepiColombo probe, a joint ESA mission with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to study Mercury, and Solar Orbiter, a sun-observing probe developed by the ESA with a NASA contribution.

Full commissioning is expected in 2026.

European-Australian partnership

The NNO-3 installation extends the ESA’s reach and develops its presence in the southern hemisphere, giving it a vantage point that allows continuous coverage when spacecraft are out of view from Europe or South America.

It also strengthens Australia’s role in global space operations, adding technical infrastructure that supports science and exploration beyond Earth orbit and complementing existing facilities at New Norcia.

New Norcia has hosted deep space tracking operations since 2003.

ESA works in partnership with Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, which manages daily operations at the site, continuing a long collaboration between ESA and Australia in space tracking and research.

The two agencies have cooperated on mission support and communications for decades, with CSIRO operating ESA facilities and providing technical and maintenance expertise.

In 2021, ESA and the Australian Space Agency (ASA) announced plans to expand the site with new antennas that would include advanced cooling systems and involve Australian contractors and engineers in the building process.

The Australian government has since directed the space agency to negotiate a cooperative agreement with ESA, which would formalize and broaden scientific and industrial participation.

The addition of the New Norcia antenna increases the network’s data capacity and resilience. It provides redundancy when other stations are unavailable and allows for higher data rates as missions generate large volumes of information.

The system’s high sensitivity is expected to improve signal quality for spacecraft operating at greater distances, including future missions such as EnVision to Venus and the Vigil solar monitoring mission.

Support for deep space probes

The newest New Norcia antenna will serve multiple deep space missions, including the Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) probe, launched in April 2023.

Juice will study the structure and composition of Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, their magnetic environments, and their potential subsurface oceans.

The probe is on an eight-year journey that will include flybys of Earth, its moon and Venus before arrival at Jupiter in 2031. The mission will eventually orbit Ganymede and conduct close observations of the Jovian system.

The two orbiters of the eight-year BepiColombo probe, launched in 2018, will examine Mercury's magnetic field, surface composition and internal structure.

The spacecraft uses solar electric propulsion and nine planetary flybys -- of Earth, Venus and Mercury -- to slow its approach to Mercury, where it is scheduled to arrive in 2026.

Communications support from New Norcia and other Estrack stations will help maintain contact and transmit data during the journey and subsequent orbital operations.

Solar Orbiter, launched in 2020, studies the sun’s magnetic activity, solar wind and polar regions. The spacecraft flies close to the sun, using a heat-resistant antenna and shield system to withstand extreme conditions.

It transmits data through ESA’s ground stations in New Norcia and Malargüe, Argentina, which track its trajectory and maintain the downlink for scientific observations.