USSR. Yevpatoria, Crimea. In 1960, a gigantic communications center for lunar and interplanetary probes was built. It consisted of systems such as Pluton (eight 16-meter dishes). In 1978, it was replaced by RT-70, also in Yevpatoria. It would be the most powerful interplanetary communications station from 1960 to 1966, when the Americans built Goldstone. On May 24, 1999, Yvan Dutil and Stéphane Dumas of Houston Encounter 2001 LLC sent a powerful message from here to four solar-type stars within 70 light-years of Earth.
