United space in Europe
Enabling & Support

From the pampas to the stars

14/12/2012 13069 views 23 likes 284433 ID 00:02:56
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ESA’s new tracking station in Malargüe, Argentina, was formally inaugurated on 18 December 2012 and entered service early in 2013.

The 35 m-diameter dish antenna enables receipt of scientific data from current and future missions voyaging hundreds of millions of kilometres into our Solar System.

Inauguration of Malargüe also marked the completion of the Agency’s trio of deep-space antenna (DSA) stations as part of the ESTRACK network and confirms ESA as one of the world’s most technologically advanced space organisations.

The station is located in Malargüe, Argentina, 1200 km west of Buenos Aires. Joining DSA 1, New Norcia, Australia, and DSA 2, Cebreros, Spain, DSA 3 Malargüe provides the final leg in ESA’s 360° circumferential coverage for deep-space probes including, today, Mars Express, Venus Express, Rosetta, Herschel and Planck, and, in the future, Gaia, BepiColombo, ExoMars, Solar Orbiter and Juice.

The foreboding beauty of the landscape near Malargüe, 1500m high in clear mountain air, is also famous for the 1972 Andes flight disaster, dramatised in the 1993 film "Alive: The Miracle of the Andes." The actual crash site in the mountains is approximately 138.4 km, as the crow flies, from ESA's station.

  • ESA
  • Documentary
  • Operations
  • ESTRACK
  • Argentina Malargüe
  • Assembling Building
  • Antenna Antenna pointing mechanism Construction Coverage Engineers Landscape Tracking stations
Malargüe under construction 2011
Enabling & Support

Malargüe station

Image 900 views 13 likes
Opening Malargüe
Enabling & Support

Station’s up

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ESA's Malargüe tracking station
Enabling & Support

ESA's Malargüe tracking station

Image 3673 views 49 likes
Lifting the huge DSA-3 antenna dish into place
Enabling & Support

Lifting DSA-3 antenna

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Malargüe station mosaic
Enabling & Support

Malargüe station mosaic

Image 497 views 1 likes