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Three
Advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellites To Help Replenish Existing On-Orbit
Fleet
LAUNCH OF NASA'S TDRS-I SATELLITE SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 8 The
launch of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I (TDRS-I) aboard an Atlas
IIA rocket (AC-143) is scheduled for Friday, March 8, 2002. Liftoff is targeted
to occur at the opening of a launch window that extends from 5:39 - 6:19 p.m.
EDT, a duration of 40 minutes. Liftoff will occur from Pad A at Complex 36 on
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch is furnished under a NASA contract
with International Launch Services. NASA
is poised to launch the second of three enhanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellites-I
(TDRS-I), marking the latest addition to an existing fleet of seven on-orbit TDRS.
The TDRS-l spacecraft will be deployed into a 22,300 mile, geosynchronous orbit
above the Earth and will maintain this fixed position while following the motion
of low-earth orbiting satellites. Aside from communications, it will also track
user satellites to help determine their exact location in space. TDRS-l will also
provide increased bandwidth and greater tuning flexibility for relaying enormous
amounts of science data, and digital TV images from space. TDRS-H launched from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. in June 2000.
Upon completion of on-orbit testing and acceptance, TDRS-l will be renamed TDRS-9
and relocated to its operational slot where it will provide improved communications
and data relay services well into the 21st century. The
new trio of satellites will help replenish the original F1-F7 constellation, which
has provided communication services to the Space Shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope,
and several other Earth-orbiting spacecraft since 1983. The network also relays
large volumes of data - voice, television, and scientific - from several orbiting
scientific or manned missions back to their respective ground control centers.
Two 15-foot antennas aboard the spacecraft will support the International Space
Station with high-resolution digital television, as well as dump enormous volumes
of data at rates up to 300 megabits/second, which is 5,000 times faster than the
standard 56K home computer modem. Total
cost for TDRS-H, -I and -J is approximately $485 million and includes the modifications
to the White Sands Complex in New Mexico.
Transfer
orbit operations, which will boost the 7,011-lb. (3,180-kilogram) spacecraft into
a 22,300-mile high geosynchronous orbit, are scheduled to occur during the two
week period following launch. In this fixed orbit, TDRS-I (renamed TDRS-9 after
acceptance) will relay enormous volumes of user data (e.g. voice, television and
science) from various orbiting scientific and manned missions to control centers
back on Earth, and will track user satellites, determining their exact location
in space.
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| Animation
of TDRS on orbit | | |
After
acceptance testing is completed, Goddard's Space Operations Project will manage
operations of TDRS-9 via the White Sands Complex. Back
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