NASA may be left without communication with its missions due to network congestion

NASA may lose contact with its scientific missions because of the increasing load on the Long Range Space Communications Network (DSN) and lack of money. This was reported by the portal Space News.

The network of radio antennas, which are located in Australia, the United States, Spain and support interplanetary space missions, began to experience an increased load with the launch of the lunar mission Artemis I. Space News notes that “growing demand but shrinking budgets are putting a strain on NASA’s Long Range Space Communications Network, threatening its ability to provide communications for the agency’s science missions and the Artemis I lunar missions.”

“We’re almost doubling the load on the DSN,” the portal quotes Suzanne Dodd, head of interplanetary communications at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as saying. – The load is increasing, it’s very disturbing.” She also emphasized that the aerospace agency does not have “monetary revenues that could solve the problems.”

Last November 16, NASA launched the Space Launch System super-heavy launch vehicle with the Orion spacecraft as part of the first phase of the Artemis program. The second phase (Artemis 2) will include orbiting the Moon on the Orion spacecraft with a crew on board, while the third (Artemis 3) will include landing astronauts on the Moon and regular manned missions.

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