TDRS-L Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Launch Lights Up the Night Sky

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lights up the night sky over Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as it carries NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, or TDRS-L, to Earth orbit. 

Launch was at 9:33 p.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 23 during a 40-minute launch window.

The TDRS-L spacecraft is the second of three new satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) fleet, which consists of eight satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

The spacecraft provide tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth.

These include NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station. 

TDRS-L has a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet the growing S-band communications requirements.

TDRSS is one of three NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) networks providing space communications to NASA’s missions.

Image Credit: NASA/Dan Casper

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Ready For Launch From Cape Canaveral

The chosen launch vehicle, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-L) spacecraft on board, arrives at the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41. 

The TDRS-L spacecraft is the second of three new satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA by expanding the lifespan of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) fleet, which consists of eight satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

The spacecraft provide tracking, telemetry, command and high bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth.

These include NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station.

TDRS-L has a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet the growing S-band communications requirements.

TDRSS is one of NASA's three Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) networks providing space communications to NASA missions.

Image Credit: NASA/Daniel Casper

TDRS-L Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Prepared For Launch

Inside the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-L), spacecraft has been encapsulated in its payload fairing. 

It is being lifted by crane for mounting on a transporter for its trip to Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

The TDRS-L satellite will be a part of the second of three next-generation spacecraft designed to ensure vital operational continuity for the NASA Space Network. 

TDRS-L is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 41 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 9:05 p.m. EST on Jan. 23, 2014, the start of a 30-minute launch window.

The current Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system consists of eight in-orbit satellites distributed to provide near continuous information relay contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Kennedy Space Center: NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) arrives

A truck hauls NASA's TDRS-L satellite to the Astrotech facility in Titusville for launch processing. 

The TDRS is the latest spacecraft destined for the agency's constellation of communications satellites that allows nearly continuous contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories. 

Credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser

NASA's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) is in a temporary home at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida waiting to be attached to a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that will take it into Earth orbit Thursday, Jan. 23.

The TDRS-L spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Friday, Dec. 6.

After being unloaded from a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft, it was unpacked and inspected to ensure it sustained no damage on its flight from the Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems satellite factory in El Segundo, Calif.

As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration, TDRS fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands.

For more than 30 years, the TDRS fleet has provided critical communication support to NASA's human spaceflight endeavors that began during the space shuttle era and continues with support of the International Space Station.

It also provides communications support to an array of science missions, as well as several launch vehicles.

"The launch of TDRS-L ensures continuity of services for the many missions that rely on the system every day," said Jeffrey Gramling, TDRS project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

TDRS-L is the second of three replenishment satellites for the TDRS constellation, which currently consists of eight spacecraft. TDRS-K was launched in January 2013. The last of the three, TDRS-M, is on track to be ready for launch as early as 2015.

Of the 11 TDRS satellites launched, eight still are operational. Four of those already are beyond their design life. Two have been retired. One was lost in a space shuttle accident.