The ABC has word that the CSIRO’s lodged a development application to build two new big dishes at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex out at Tidbinbilla.
- Construction of the $60 million 34-metre dishes is expected to start next year.
Complex director Miriam Baltuck says the first antenna will be operational in time to track the New Horizons spacecraft arrival at Pluto in 2015.
Apparently the interesting planets are clumping towards the southern hemisphere over the next few years so the space cadets at Tidbinbilla are going to be getting much more work.