page_title: Pine Gap
section_title: The base
hierarchical_section_title: Pine Gap / The base
caption_attribution_description: English: The road to the Joint Defence Facility of Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, Australia.
context_page_description: Pine Gap is the commonly used name for a US satellite surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately 18 kilometres south-west of the town of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the centre of Australia which is jointly operated by Australia and the United States. Since 1988, it has been officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap; previously, it was misleadingly known as Joint Defence Space Research Facility.
  The station is partly run by the US Central Intelligence Agency, US National Security Agency, and US National Reconnaissance Office and is a key contributor to the NSA's global interception effort, which included the ECHELON program. The classified NRO name of the Pine Gap base is Australian Mission Ground Station, while the unclassified cover term for the NSA function of the facility is RAINFALL.
context_section_description: The facilities at the base consist of a massive computer complex with 38 radomes protecting radio dishes and has over 800 employees. NSA employee David Rosenberg indicated that the chief of the facility was a senior CIA officer at the time of his service there.
  The location is strategically significant because it controls United States spy satellites as they pass over one-third of the globe, including China, the Asian parts of Russia, and the Middle East. Central Australia was chosen because it was too remote for spy ships passing in international waters to intercept the signal. The facility has become a key part of the local economy.
caption: Warning sign on the road to Pine Gap
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