Ground station

A ground station is a mostly stationary station located on the earth's surface for the observation , surveillance or telemetry of missiles inside or outside the earth's atmosphere .

Such missiles are mainly:

• Rockets , artificial earth satellites and space probes
• Airplanes , balloons and radiosondes .

The purpose of observation can be:

• Monitoring a rocket or satellite launch
• Determination of flight or satellite paths by radio, radar stations or special cameras
• Reception or transmission of radio signals or measurement data
• Radio connection for radio or telephone
• Military and air surveillance .

The different types of ground stations include: a .:

• Mission Control Center
• Earth stations , relay stations , orbital system
• Radio telescopes , Deep Space Network
• Fundamental , satellite stations , reference station
• Radar stations , radio control systems .

Earlier systems for determining the orbit of satellites were u. a. the US Minitrack radio network and the Moonwatch stations around the world .