NASA's top officials are in Canberra to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the space administration's Deep Space Network.

The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla is one of three sites worldwide that facilitate the communication between NASA and its craft, satellites and astronauts across the solar system.

Over the past 50 years, the network has coordinated and controlled hundreds of manned and un-manned ventures into space including the first manned mission to the moon in 1969, the first fly-by of Neptune in the 1980s, and the Curiosity Mars Rover mission in 2012.

The Tidbinbilla facility, hidden among the hills near Canberra, has three giant antennas- one 70 metre-wide dish and two that are 32 metres wide - that help to coordinate the dozens of NASA missions running at any one time.

CDSCC director Dr Ed Kruzins says the Canberra site has contributed strongly to NASA's missions.

"The DSN (Deep Space Network) ensures that the critical science obtained by robotic spacecraft in extreme environments at incredible distances makes it back home to Earth," he said.

"We are tremendously proud of our ongoing contribution to NASA's exploration of space and of the job done by our predecessors."

The site is run by the CSIRO on behalf of NASA.

Dr David Williams leads information science research at CSIRO and in the past has run both the United Kingdom Space Agency and the European Space Agency.

He says the facility is a crucial part of the Deep Space Network.

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NASA celebrates 50 years of deep space exploration in Canberra