This Thursday, April 21st, Dr. Joseph Lazio, Principal Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and assigned to NASA’s Deep Space Network, will give a talk on “NASA's Deep Space Network: Opening the Solar System, Opening the Universe”.

Dr. Lazio is collaborating with the US Virtual Astronomical Observatory program and he has also worked on the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and as Assistant Director of NASA’s Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research (LUNAR). He is also involved with the largest radio astronomy complexes on earth, like the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA), the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), the Green Bank Telescope, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array.

As part of Isdefe’s NASA science outreach program, this talk will take an in-depth look at the advances and challenges of the Deep Space Network (DSN), an international array of antennas that make up the world’s largest and most sensitive communications network for scientific applications. This network makes it possible for interplanetary probes and for satellites in Earth orbit to explore the solar system and the universe.

The Robledo de Chavela Space Complex in Madrid (MDSCC) is an integral of the NASA's Deep Space Network DSN, with Isdefe providing all of the management services at this facility.Isdefe manages the operation, maintenance and technical support of the center for the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), which is responsible for the facilities following the agreement of 1964 between Spain and the United States. The MDSCC celebrated in 2014 its 50th anniversary.

The event will take place on Thursday, April 21st at 1 PM in the Isdefe Lecture Hall, No. 3 Beatriz de Bobadilla Street, Madrid. For more information: [email protected]