CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An upgraded NASA satellite soon will join the agency's constellation of workhorse communications spacecraft after getting a boost into orbit Friday by an Atlas 2A rocket.
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I (TDRS-I) was shot into space as part of an $840 million program to eventually replace six aging sister craft, which are considered critical to every major NASA spaceborne program from the International Space Station to the Hubble Space Telescope.
"TDRS is the phone system for the astronauts," Robert Jenkens, NASA's TDRS project manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in explaining the importance of the constellation to the space agency.
Television, science data, radio signals, spacecraft telemetry and even e-mail is relayed between Earth and space thanks to this network of spacecraft, the first of which was launched into orbit by the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.
But with a growing demand for more communication services from an aging TDRS fleet that were designed to last seven years, but are on average now more than 12 years old, NASA in 1995 began an effort to orbit three modernized and more capable TDRS.
The first of the three, TDRS-H, was launched by an Atlas 2A rocket in June 2000. Friday's launch marked the second, and a third is to be lofted by an Atlas later this year, perhaps in November. Built by Boeing Space Systems, the trio of enhanced spacecraft include improvements that will allow, for example, high-resolution TV signals to be beamed between a space shuttle and the ground, as well as relaying enormous amounts of data at speeds 5,000 times faster than a typical 56K home computer modem.
"This becomes, then, an essential link in the exploration of space," said Jack Wormington, a Boeing Space Systems vice president.
Sunset spectacle
Friday's satellite delivery mission began at 5:59 p.m. EST with a colorful display of fire and smoke over Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as the 15-story rocket climbed away from pad 36A and then arced out over the Atlantic Ocean.
Step by step, the Atlas 2A booster with its Centaur upper stage followed its programmed sequence into space, successfully concluding the automated adventure with spacecraft separation nearly 30 minutes after the blast off.
"The entire TDRS team did an outstanding job preparing for and conducting today's launch," Jenkens said, noting that controllers were in touch with their new spacecraft and all onboard systems were working well.
Mission managers reported that the first stage Atlas booster didn't give the anticipated boost, but the Centaur stage more than made up the difference with its usual series of two rocket firings and officials don't consider the Atlas' slightly low performance an issue.
Liftoff was delayed 20 minutes because of a last-minute problem in which a landline that transmits data between pad 36A and the launch control blockhouse momentarily failed.
That problem triggered others and by the time engineers had switched to a backup line and then reset some equipment that monitors key measurements on the rocket, launch managers were forced to delay the shot, burning up half of the 40-minute available launch window.
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