The European Space Agency (ESA) inaugurated a new 35 -meter -diameter antenna.
This is the fourth antenna under the Estrack network, which is the ESA deep -session monitoring network.
The New Norcia 3 antenna, located in Australia about 115 km north of Perth, will help meet the rapidly increasing needs of the organization's data and ensures Europe's independence and leadership in space, the organization said in a statement.
Speaking to the inauguration, Josef Aschbacher, ESA's general manager, said that "this strategic investment enhances the ESA deep -session communication capabilities and maximizes the performance of the most valuable asset of our missions, namely the data provided by spaceships traveling away from Earth."
New and exciting opportunities are being opened between European and Australian space sectors, he concluded.
