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| A container with the TDRS satellite is unloaded from a C-17 aircraft. [PHOTO: NASA/Kim Shiflett] |
Cape Canaveral, Florida: NASA's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, known as
TDRS-K, arrived Tuesday at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in
preparation for a Jan. 29 launch. TDRS-K arrived aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17
from the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems assembly facility in El Segundo,
Calif.
For almost 30 years,
the TDRS spacecraft have provided a reliable communications network for NASA,
serving numerous national and international space missions. The TDRS fleet is a
space-based communication system used to provide tracking, telemetry, command,
and high bandwidth data return services. The satellites provide in-flight
communications with spacecraft operating in low-Earth orbit. It has been 10
years since NASA's last TDRS launch.
"This launch
will provide even greater capabilities to a network that has become key to
enabling many of NASA's scientific discoveries," says Jeffrey Gramling,
project manager for TDRS at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md.
TDRS-K will launch to
geostationary orbit aboard an Atlas V rocket. The spacecraft is the first of
three next-generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational
continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the fleet. The launch of
TDRS-L is scheduled for 2014 and TDRS-M in 2015.
Each of the new
satellites has a higher performance solar panel design to provide more
spacecraft power. This upgrade will return signal processing for the S-Band
multiple access service to the ground -- the same as the first-generation TDRS
spacecraft. Ground-based processing allows TDRS to service more customers with
different and evolving communication requirements.
The TDRS fleet began
operating during the space shuttle era and provides critical communication
support from several locations in geostationary orbit to NASA's human
spaceflight endeavors, including the International Space Station. The fleet
also provides communications support to an array of science missions, as well
as various types of launch vehicles. Of the nine TDRS satellites launched,
seven are still operational, although four are already beyond their design
life. Two have been retired. The second TDRS was lost in 1986 during the space
shuttle Challenger accident.
NASA's Space
Communications and Navigation Program, part of the Human Exploration and
Operations Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, is
responsible for the TDRS network. NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy is
responsible for launch management. United Launch Alliance provides the Atlas V
rocket launch service.