commonly called the Goldstone Observatory, is located in the U.S. state of California's Mojave Desert. Operated for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, its main purpose is to track and communicate with space missions. It is named after Goldstone, California, a nearby gold-mining ghost town.[3]
The complex includes the Pioneer Deep Space Station, which is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The current communications complex is one of three[4] in the NASA Deep Space Network, the others being the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.