Artemis II, which was launched on April 2nd AEST, was the first crewed lunar mission in 50 years, laying the groundwork for a future moon-landing mission.  The prime tracking network used for the mission was NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which consists of sites near Canberra, Goldstone (California) and Madrid (Spain), with multiple radio antennas at each site. Each Complex hosts one 70 m diameter antenna. Constructed originally in the 1960s as 64 m diameter antennas, based on the design for Murriyang, the Parkes Radio Telescope, the antennas were expanded to 70 m diameter in the 1980s for the Voyager 2 Neptune encounter. The other big difference is that Murriyang can only tip in elevation to a zenith angle of 60 degrees — sufficient to see the whole southern sky over the course of a day. In order to be able to track spacecraft for as long as possible, the DSN 70m antennas can tip in elevation to a little over 80 degrees. The image above shows the 70m DSS-43 antenna at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex tracking Artemis II close to the horizon. (Image credit: @CanberraDSN)