Through technology, we've developed the ability to reach out into the distant corners of the universe. Rovers, orbiters, and deep-space probes. But regardless of how far away from us they extend, they all reach from a single point of origin: Earth. Or, to be even more specific, they all extend out from this one room in Pasadena, California.
The Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA JPL controls the Deep Space Network - a collection of the world's the most insanely powerful antennae which monitors and tracks all of our spacecraft that travel beyond Low-Earth Orbit. Satellites, shuttles, and the ISS stay within a few hundred miles of the earth, so they can communicate directly with Houston or whoever through smaller antennae. Every bit of data that comes from something traveling beyond our little blue comfort zone has to go through JPL and their Deep Space Network. Without them, we would be effectively cut off from interplanetary space.
(thanks Cora)
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