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MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Guy Webster  (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.     January 22, 2002

News Release: 2003-008

Workers at Australian Site Save Space Antennas From Wildfire
============================================================

Australian antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network used for
communicating with spacecraft are back in normal operation after a
close call with wildfires that destroyed hundreds of homes and took
four lives in the Canberra area.

Brush fires surrounded the network's Canberra complex on Saturday.
Workers used hoses to dowse spot fires on the site Saturday and were
still extinguishing flare-ups Monday.

"A group of staff performed magnificently, successfully ensuring that
no fires took hold at the site," said Peter Churchill, director of the
Canberra antenna complex. "They also assisted the local fire service
in their efforts to protect homes and farm infrastructure in the
Tidbinbilla Valley."

The Canberra dish antennas were inactive for about three and one-half
hours Saturday so workers could concentrate on the fire.  During that
period, the complex had been scheduled to be in communication with
five spacecraft on interplanetary missions or in Earth orbit, but none
of the missed transmissions was critical or irreplaceable, said Joseph
Wackley, Deep Space Network operations manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The network has antenna clusters in California, Spain and Australia so
that the large radio dishes can be pointed toward spacecraft in any
part of the solar system as the world turns. The antennas communicate
with spacecraft as distant as Voyager 1, more than twice as far away
as Pluto.

Strong winds spread the fires across expanses of drought-parched
vegetation.  One entrance to the Canberra complex has been closed
because of a burned-out bridge, Churchill said.  An outlying support
structure -- a tower, used in calibrations of the antennas -- was
damaged by the fires.  The site's visitor center is temporarily
closed.  The fire destroyed another important astronomical resource in
the area, the Mount Stromlo observatory of Australian National
University.

The antenna site has its own backup electrical generators and water
supply.  The facility is sharing hot meals and water with area
residents who have temporarily lost power and water to their homes.

"We are expecting further adverse weather conditions during the week
and continue to prepare ourselves for fire duties as required,"
Churchill said.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
manages the Deep Space Network for NASA.  The network's Canberra site
is operated by British Aerospace, under contract to Australia's
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

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