system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
When an astronaut in space talks to Houston, what is the technology that makes the call?

I'm sure the technology changed over the years, so I'll ask this in a two parter with the technology of the Apollo missions and the technology of today. Radio towers only have a certain distance on Earth they can broadcast, and if the space shuttle is currently in orbit on the exact opposite side of the Earth as the antenna, the communications would have cut out. So back when the space program was just starting, what was the technology they used to talk to people in space. Was it a series of broadcasting antennas around the globe? Something that has a strong enough broadcast range to pass through planetary bodies? Some kind of aimed technology like a satellite dish that could track the ship in orbit? What was the communication infrastructure they had to build and how has it changed to today?
gpt
Others have talked about the old way of doing this. 

The current way of doing it is with a series of satellites known as tracking data and relay satellites (TDRS, pronounced Teed rus). 

They can basically forward the data around to a satellite that is near one of the NASA dishes. 

They are also useful in that they can talk to a capsule - or shuttle - in reentry because radio signals going up aren't blocked by the reentry plasmas.