The ground station in Neustrelitz (designated NSG) is located north of Berlin at 53° 19.779’ N, 13° 4.247’ O, which is an ideal location for achieving maximal coverage of Europe. Before German unification it was an important receiving station in the Eastern European INTERKOSMOS programme and it has been a part of DFD since 1992.
The station is designed to receive both remote sensing and science data and to provide a TT&C service in collaboration with the German Space Operations Center (GSOC). Another partner is the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (Boulder, Colorado, USA) for the ACE/DISCVR mission. The system is highly autonomous with defined interfaces to national and international partners, including USGS. There are also direct interfaces to the data processing systems of internal and external partners.
The reception system has the following characteristics:
The team’s responsibilities include the following tasks related to the receiving system:
In the framework of national and international projects the team supports corresponding processes in project teams and review boards.