WA: Space agency builds base station in Western Australia

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2001
WA: Space agency builds base station in Western Australia

PERTH, Aug 19 AAP - The European Space Agency (ESA) has built its first ground station
in Australia, after lifting the largest satellite dish in Western Australia into place
in New Norcia, 134 km north of Perth.

The 100 tonne, 35 metre dish, is part of the agency's global tracking station network.

The dish will be used to communicate with a number of space missions, including a planned
2003 mission to collect rock samples on Mars, and the Rosetta satellite launch, also in
2003, for a 10 year study of the comet, Wirtanen.

ESA's New Norcia ground station has a number of operations buildings and the antenna,
which supports the dish.

When complete the antenna will weigh about 630 tonnes and tower 40 metres.

It took four hours and two cranes yesterday to lift the dish into place, in one of
the most complex heavy lifting operations in Western Australia, said site manager Wayne
Sheffield.

AAP rm/cjh1

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