Xinhua News Agency, Xi’an, November 18 (By Li Guoli, Lü Binghong)Reporters learned from the Xi’an Satellite Tracking and Control Center on November 18 that after nearly two years of construction, China’s first deep-space antenna array system has been completed and fully debugged at the Kashgar Deep Space Station. Officially commissioned recently, the system has been put into the tracking and control missions of Tianwen-1 and Chang’e-4.

As China advances further into deep space, a single large-caliber tracking and control antenna can no longer meet the requirements of deep-space missions for telemetry, tracking, command and data transmission. To enhance the ground system’s capability to receive downlink data from deep-space probes, the Xi’an Satellite Tracking and Control Center has built three new 35-meter-aperture antennas at the Kashgar Deep Space Station. Together with the existing 35-meter antenna, they form a 4×35-meter deep-space antenna array system, delivering data reception performance equivalent to a 66-meter-aperture antenna. Compared with existing equipment, the new system boasts a substantial increase in detection range and receiving sensitivity, providing strong tracking and control support for China’s various deep-space exploration programs.

Li Sihu, Director of the Kashgar Tracking and Control Station, stated that the system enables high-precision tracking and control of a single deep-space probe. Each antenna can also operate independently to track multiple deep-space targets simultaneously. In addition, it can conduct distributed array networking with other astronomical observatories at home and abroad to carry out joint radio astronomical observations.

The Long March 5 Y5 carrier rocket and the Chang’e-5 probe are scheduled for launch at an appropriate time in late November. At present, all deep-space stations under the Xi’an Satellite Tracking and Control Center have completed space-ground interface verification and docking work, making full preparations for the successful execution of the mission.

(Source: Xinhuanet)