A look inside the control room of the Deep Space Network

Thanks to Gizmodo, here's a glimpse of the JPL Space Flight Operations Facility that you won't ever be able to record yourself.

I know this because I've had just a sheet of glass between me and the Canberra Deep Space Network Main Control Room as part of the CSIRO Tweetup for the Mars Curiosity launch in November 2011. And we weren't even allowed to take still pictures. Some rot from NASA about keeping their radio frequencies secret, even though they are publicly accessible elsewhere...

Serious dint in our memorabilia of the event.

And here we have stills, video, screen shots, the lot. What gives NASA?

Anyway, every single off-world mission (that's got a nice ring to it doesn't it?) comes through one of the three main DSN tracking stations in Pasadena - California, Madrid - Spain or right here in Canberra - Australia, and gets piped to this room. Seriously cool workplace...