Our Location

The ideal spot for Antennas, Computers, Goats and Alpacas

As every estate agent will tell you, location is everything.

Call us biased, but Goonhilly Downs is one of the most stunning spots in the UK. On the most southerly tip of mainland Britain, our satellite dishes dominate the west coast of the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall.

The remote location minimises radio-signal interference and the serpentine rock can support the weight of even the largest dishes.

Goonhilly Downs itself is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Its sparse heathland features many rare plants thanks to the mild oceanic climate.

Our site is also home to a menagerie of alpacas, goats and at least a thousand rabbits.

The Goonhilly site is steeped in pre-historic as well as recent communications history. Neolithic barrows, tumuli and monuments include a 3.2-metre high standing stone.

Goonhilly Downs used to be notorious for its highwaymen. But now we are known for sitting at Europe’s communications crossroads, where satellite meets global subsea cables and fibre. Cornwall used to host the hotline between the US president and the UK prime minister too.

Today 90% of transatlantic data traffic still comes through Cornwall. Never complacent, local investment in the space economy now includes the Spaceport Cornwall horizontal launch site at Newquay.

When you add communications and data with renewable energy and an environment with mild climate, you can see why this is the top spot for AI, deep learning and high-performance computing.

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Our Sites & Heritage

Prime UK sites in Cornwall and Hampshire

Goonhilly HQ – Goonhilly Earth Station – has a rich history, having participated in every milestone in the development of satellite telecommunications. Geographically, the Goonhilly Earth Station site is situated over an area of 142 acres on the Lizard Peninsula, in Cornwall. Being surrounded by ocean in all directions except the North, and in a low population density area means the site experiences exceptionally low RF interference.

Our Farnborough office is home to a number of our expert research engineers, technical consultants, and project managers. Its convenient location is just a stone's throw from London.

Aerial View of Goonhilly's HQ in Cornwall

Services are also offered from two US teleports, in Connecticut and California

In 2023, Goonhilly established Goonhilly Inc (dba COMSAT) and acquired the renowned COMSAT Southbury and COMSAT Santa Paula teleports on the US East and West coast. Now part of Intuitive Machines, the sites are located 60 miles North-east of New York and 90 miles North of Los Angeles respectively. The teleports have operated continuously since 1976 and were the first in the US to achieve World Teleport Association Tier 4 certification - a testament to their industry-leading standards.

Goonhilly are proud to offer satcom services from the US sites, which offer 24/7/365 Network Operations Centers, terrestrial connectivity to all major fiber networks, and excellent levels of redundancy and security.

Discover more about COMSAT at comsat.com

Aerial View of COMSAT Southbury teleport

An aerial view of COMSAT Santa Paula, showing satellite antennas against Californian hills

Goonhilly Earth Station Heritage

From the first Moon landing to future Mars missions

Goonhilly Earth Station has been at the forefront of the satellite communications industry for over 50 years.

We first caught the public’s imagination in 1962 when our large dish, Aerial-1, known as Arthur, received the first transatlantic TV signal - a speech by President Kennedy via Telstar, the earliest communications satellite.

In 1969, the Apollo 11 Moon landing truly signalled the dawn of the space age. Arthur beamed Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon to a global audience of around 600 million.

Arthur went on to broadcast Muhammad Ali fights and the 1985 Live Aid concerts as well as its bread and butter: phone calls, bank transactions, and shipping distress calls.

By the 1970s, Goonhilly Earth Station was the largest in the world, transmitting and receiving communications from satellites. Every UK international call was spliced up here to be sent over satellite to its destination. As the UK’s main route for international telephone calls over satellite, we were instrumental in the development of Intelsat, Eutelsat and Inmarsat.

Birth of the Internet

In 1991, Goonhilly Earth Station became the lynchpin in the Internet, connecting the East and West coasts of the US to Europe.

Nathanial Bradford's Illustration of 'First Internet' route 1977

A new era

Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. (‘Goonhilly’) acquired the iconic site on a 999-year lease in 2014. Since then, we’ve breathed new life into the site and its assets – making them key enablers of the exploration and utilisation of space.

In 2021, we completed upgrades to 32m antenna, GHY-6, and began offering the world’s first commercial lunar and deep space communications services, supporting civil and commercial space science and exploration missions to the Moon and beyond.

In 2023, Goonhilly acquired the iconic US satcom brand COMSAT, and its East and West Coast teleports. Having been operational since 1976, the sites’ rich heritage and experience merged with Goonhilly's to deliver stronger solutions and increased geographical coverage for our customers.

In 2026, Goonhilly and COMSAT were acquired by NASDAQ-listed space infrastructure company, Intuitive Machines. The brands continue to deliver reliable connectivity, data, and intelligence to customers around the world across three market-based divisions: Lunar & Deep Space Communications; National Security; and Commercial Satcom.

NASA PR photo : Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Collins

Aerial View 'Goonhilly Farnborough' Office

Our Heritage

From the first Moon landing to future Mars missions

Goonhilly has been at the forefront of the satellite communications industry for over 50 years.

In 1969, the Apollo 11 Moon landing truly signalled the dawn of the space age. Arthur beamed Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon to a global audience of around 600 million.

Arthur went on to broadcast Muhammad Ali fights and the 1985 Live Aid concerts as well as its bread and butter: phone calls, bank transactions and shipping distress calls.

By the 1970s, Goonhilly was the world’s largest earth station, transmitting and receiving communications from satellites. Every UK international call was spliced up here to be sent over satellite to its destination.

As the UK’s main route for international telephone calls over satellite, we were instrumental in the development of Intelsat, Eutelsat and Inmarsat.

Birth of the Internet

In 1977, we became the lynchpin in the Internet, connecting the East and West coasts of the US to Europe.

The new space age

We are at the dawn of a new space era, where private companies are finding creative new ways of exploring and commercialising space, supported by our deep space communications services.

With parallels to the new space economy moving from public ownership to private initiatives, in 2014, Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd, led by Ian Jones, acquired the site from BT.

Then in 2018, Peter Hargreaves, the billionaire behind Hargreaves Lansdown, invested £24M in the business.

Today we are involved in a diverse range of long-term collaborations, projects and innovations that will ensure Goonhilly continues to make history.

Commercial deep space network

Goonhilly now hosts the world’s first commercial deep space network antenna through a recent upgrade programme on our 32m antenna GHY-6, allowing additional capacity that will extend existing NASA and ESA deep space networks.