NASA TDRS-K Spacecraft Ready for Launch

NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, enclosed in its payload fairing, passes through the Launch Complex 39 area at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 20, 2013 as it travels from the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., to its launch site.

TDRS-K will lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 on Jan. 30, 2013.

The TDRS-K spacecraft is part of the next-generation series in the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, a constellation of space-based communication satellites providing tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services.

Image Credit: NASA/Glenn Benson