DSS-43, Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex

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The 70-metre antenna at Tidbinbilla, southwest of Canberra, and the single most consequential piece of ground equipment in the Voyager mission. Voyager 2's Titan and Neptune flybys sent it steeply south of the ecliptic plane, and from Earth it now sits far enough into the southern sky that no northern-hemisphere antenna can see it. DSS-43 is the only dish anywhere with a transmitter powerful enough and a view good enough to send commands to Voyager 2; the smaller Canberra antennas can receive its signal but cannot talk back. When DSS-43 was taken out of service for a major upgrade beginning in 2020, Voyager 2 spent months able to speak but not to be spoken to. Operated for NASA by Australia's national science agency.