A second 35-m deep space antenna is currently under construction at ESA’s New Norcia station. The new NNO-3 antenna will be very similar in design to NNO-1.

As ESA launches an increasing number of long-term space missions and supports the communication efforts of an increasing number of partners, the demand for ground station bandwidth is rising rapidly.

In order to meet this demand, ESA’s ground station experts are developing new technologies to make the existing Estrack stations more efficient than ever before. But as the stations reach the efficiency limits dictated by fundamental laws of physics, the only solution is to build more antennas.