How STScI Sends Commands to Webb and Receives Its Data

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, plays a key role in communicating with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. STScI houses Webb’s Mission Operations Center, which commands and controls the telescope. Commands from STScI travel to Webb via the Deep Space Network (DSN), an array of radio antennas located in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. The data that Webb collects are then transmitted through the DSN to STScI, where they are processed, distributed to the scientific community, and archived.