Cebreros Deep Space Ground Station

ESA, with the goal of increasing its capacity to support deep space missions, started the construction of a second 35 meter diameter antenna (DSA-2, X band Tx/Rx and Ka band Rx) similar to the one that is operating in New Norcia (Australia). This second antenna has been placed in Cebreros (Ávila, Spain), about 70Km northwest Madrid.

The installation of this antenna started in 2003, and is currently operational since September 2005 in time to give support to ESA mission "Venus Express". INSA gave support to the re-opening of Cebreros, and is currently operating this facility.

Cebreros antenna works in high frequencies in order to boost data return. In this way, it will be able to support large amount of data from future deep space missions. Featuring state-of-the-art technology, Cebreros will be capable of supporting Herschel Planck, LISA Pathfinder, Gaia and BepiColombo, among others.