Bodenstation Weilheim, Transmission station in Wielenbach, Germany.
Bodenstation Weilheim is a DLR satellite ground station near Weilheim in Upper Bavaria. Its antennas and technical buildings stand on Wielenbach municipal territory, while the administration building lies within Weilheim. The site includes a 30-metre deep-space antenna, two 6.8-metre Ka-band dishes for EDRS, and several S-, Ku- and Ka-band antennas.
Construction of the station began in 1967 as the Z-DBS, the central station of the German ground station system, and it entered service on 1 March 1968. Its 30-metre antenna followed in 1974 as Germany's only certified deep-space station, used with the Effelsberg radio telescope to track the Helios probes within NASA's Deep Space Network. The antenna was renovated in 2004 and the whole site modernised in 2011.
The station is run by DLR's Communication & Ground Stations unit, part of the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. Its 30-metre dish can be switched into ESA's ESTRACK network and then operated from ESOC in Darmstadt, and antenna time can be booked by other space agencies. Staff also work in international bodies on CCSDS data standards and SFCG frequency coordination.
The antennas and technical buildings stand on Wielenbach municipal territory, while the administration building lies within Weilheim; the site is staffed in shifts around the clock, seven days a week. The 30 m dish can be booked for antenna time by other space agencies and switched into ESA's ESTRACK network, then run from ESOC in Darmstadt.
The 30-metre dish, built in 1974, is Germany's only certified deep-space station. A movable cabin at its rear carries transmitters and receivers into the focus. It tracked the two Helios probes alongside the Effelsberg radio telescope, was integrated into NASA's DSN, and supported Voyager up to Jupiter, Giotto, AMPTE and EQUATOR-S.
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