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From: Kent Castle <kent.d.castle@hotmail.com>
Date: January 31, 2013 7:11:55 PM GMT-06:00
To: Martin Bobby <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>, Baird Darren <darren.t.baird@nasa.gov>, Choban Peter <peter.s.choban@aero.org>
Subject: FW: Atlas V launches TDRS on year's first flight
From: Subject: FW: Atlas V launches TDRS on year's first flight
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:58:39 -0600
Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller@nasa.gov
Dewayne Washington
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0040
dewayne.a.washington@nasa.govJan. 30, 2013
RELEASE : 13-035
NASA Launches Next-Generation Communications Satellite
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first of NASA's three next-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), known as TDRS-K, launched at 8:48 p.m. EST Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
http://www.nasa.gov/tdrs
"TDRS-K bolsters our network of satellites that provides essential communications to support space exploration," said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator for Space Communications and Navigation at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It will improve the overall health and longevity of our system."
The TDRS system provides tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth. These include the International Space Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
"With this launch, NASA has begun the replenishment of our aging space network," said Jeffrey Gramling, TDRS project manager. "This addition to our current fleet of seven will provide even greater capabilities to a network that has become key to enabling many of NASA's scientific discoveries."
TDRS-K was lifted into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41. After a three-month test phase, NASA will accept the spacecraft for additional evaluation before putting the satellite into service.
The TDRS-K spacecraft includes several modifications from older satellites in the TDRS system, including redesigned telecommunications payload electronics and a high-performance solar panel designed for more spacecraft power to meet growing S-band requirements. Another significant design change, the return to ground-based processing of data, will allow the system to service more customers with evolving communication requirements.
The next TDRS spacecraft, TDRS-L, is scheduled for launch in 2014. TDRS-M's manufacturing process will be completed in 2015.
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 space network. The TDRS Project Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the TDRS development program. Launch services were provided by United Launch Alliance. NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center was responsible for acquisition of launch services.
For more information about TDRS, visit:
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45th Space Wing Supports NASA's TDRS-K Launch
by 45th Space Wing Public Affairs
1/30/2013 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. -- The U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing provided Eastern Range support for the successful launch of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites at 8:48 p.m. from Space Launch Complex 41 here.
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System connects mission control with the International Space Station and other orbiting satellites.
A combined team of military, government civilians and contractors from across the 45th Space Wing provided support to the TDRS-K mission, including weather forecasts, launch and range operations, security, safety and public affairs.
The wing also provided its vast network of radar, telemetry, optical and communications instrumentation to facilitate a safe launch on the Eastern Range.
Brig. Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander, 45th Space Wing, served as the Launch Decision Authority for this mission.
"What a great way to kick off the New Year, with another successful launch from the Easter Range," he said. "Our manifest is full and strong for the coming year," he added.
Gen. Cotton also thanked all those who - once again - made this mission a success.
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Brilliant Atlas V liftoff from Cape Canaveral sets tone for 2013
Atlas V carries TDRS aloft on year's first flight
Written by
Todd Halvorson
FLORIDA TODAY
Atlas V launches with NASA communications satellit...: An Atlas V rocket carrying the TDRS-K communications satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday night. By NASA TV Posted Jan. 30, 2013
An United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday evening, January 30, 2013. The rocket is carrying the latest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite for NASA. (AP photo, Craig Bailey, Florida Today)
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An United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday evening, January 30, 2013. The rocket is carrying the latest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite for NASA. (AP photo, Craig Bailey, Florida Today) / Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY
Contact Halvorson at thalvorson@floridatoday.com
CAPE CANAVERAL — A powerful Atlas V rocket roared off its Cape Canaveral launch pad Wednesday, propelling a critical NASA communications satellite toward orbit.
The 192-foot-tall Atlas V blasted off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:48 p.m., the first rocket launch from Florida's Space Coast this year.
The United Launch Alliance booster rose into the night sky, appearing as a bright, white fireball as it rumbled toward an orbital perch 22,300 miles above the planet.
Riding aboard the Atlas V: a NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. The 7,600-pound TDRS spacecraft will act as an orbital switchboard, relaying voice communications and data between the International Space Station and ground stations.
Mission Control can maintain almost constant contact with the outpost and its crews as a result of the TDRS spacecraft.
Other NASA spacecraft – including the Hubble Space Telescope – also will use the satellite. So will spacecraft operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.
NASA developed TDRS spacecraft to improve communications with orbiting spacecraft. They also enabled the agency to close down worldwide ground stations that supported the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. The ground stations were expensive to operate and hard to maintain.
Ten NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellites already had been launched before Wednesday, the first in 1983. Seven of those still are operating. One was lost in the 1986 Challenger accident, which occurred 27 years ago this week.
The 11th was the first of a new-generation being built by The Boeing Co. NASA officials say that spacecraft, another to be launched next year, and modifications to a ground station in New Mexico cost $715 million.
Next up at Cape Canaveral: the March 1 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon spacecraft. The flight will be the second of 12 cargo resupply missions SpaceX is launching to the International Space Station under a $1.6 billion NASA contract.
Copyright © 2013 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved.
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Atlas 5 puts science-relay satellite into orbit for NASA
Advancing from the days of ground stations providing sporadic coverage of man's early exploits in space to the creation of an orbiting satellite network for constant communications, the third generation of NASA's tracking stations in the sky roared off the launch pad Wednesday night.
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
January 30, 2013
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, capping its quickest pre-flight processing flow to date, fired into the nighttime sky from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 at 8:48 p.m. EST (0148 GMT).
Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance
At just 27 days from the start of stacking to main engine ignition, ULA's efforts at "span reductions" bore fruit by besting the previous quick mark by two weeks. The launch provider says the improved tempo will heighten efficiencies, increase available slots in the manifest and cut costs.
"It offers our customers added manifest flexibility to meet their schedules and it also offers additional launch opportunities to ensure payloads can be launched on time and reliably," said Vern Thorp, ULA's program manager for NASA missions.
Displaying that reliably Wednesday night on its 35th mission in a decade and the 8th for NASA, the Atlas-Centaur artfully propelled the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K into its prescribed orbit, reaching an elliptical orbit with a high point of 22,245 statute miles, low point of 2,680 statute miles and inclination of 25.6 degrees.
Lasting an hour and 46 minutes from departing the launch pad through deployment of the payload in the geosynchronous transfer orbit, the ascent went exactly as planned to bolster NASA's in-space communications infrastructure.
"Launch is just the beginning of this satellite's journey, and the addition of TDRS K to the overall constellation will continue the successful legacy of the project and strengthen NASA's communications system that is so vital to the International Space Station and many other satellites in orbit today and will be in the future," Thorp said.
The TDRS system was born in 1973 to keep astronauts and satellites in constant contact with mission controllers, closing the substantial gaps every orbit as spacecraft passed into and out of range of ground stations scattered around the globe.
This illustration shows TDRS K separating from the Centaur upper stage. Credit: United Launch Alliance
When TDRS first became operational in late 1983, the initial space shuttle mission to use the system relayed more information to the ground during its 10 days in orbit than in all 39 previous American manned spaceflights.
Relying on dispersed ground stations was a costly requirement and subjected the sites' operators to dangerous conditions in far-off countries, yet the system provided only 15 percent communications capability per orbit.
"What would it take to have continuous 24/7 communications services for NASA missions? That is what prompted the TDRS constellation," said Paul Buchanan, TDRS deputy project manager and contracting officer.
"We didn't want to the outages of voice or data, that prompted to the TDRS system to be designed and built."
Prolonged disconnections were eliminated with the debut of TDRS, effectively moving those tracking stations 22,300 miles into the sky to gaze down at the user spacecraft, upping the blanket coverage to 85 percent per orbit with two operational TDRS satellites.
But looking to close that remaining gap, or zone of exclusion, more spacecraft were put into operation to create full 100 percent orbital coverage.
Six of the seven first-generation satellites went into orbit, with one lost in the Challenger accident. The space shuttles deployed those TRW-built craft between 1983 and 1995, with four of the long-lived birds still doing the job today 22,300 miles above Earth.
"As spacecraft age, they all kind of develop their own unique set of problems, especially for spacecraft beyond their design life. So each one has to be cared for in different ways," said Jeff Gramling, NASA's TDRS project manager from the Goddard Space Flight Center.
But despite their advanced ages, they remain useful, and the demands of communications services continue to grow.
"We've been fortunate in that our first-generation spacecraft, the one of those we launched through 1995 with a 10-year design life, have lived well beyond the design life. That has given us the time to make sure are able to repopulate or recapitalize the network," said Gramling.
A second-generation came along between 2000 and 2002, as the TDRS H, I and J satellites were deployed by unmanned Atlas 2A rockets from Cape Canaveral to improve the capabilities of the network.
Liftoff of TDRS K. Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance
Now, Boeing is building the K, L and M spacecraft for launches over the next three years to keep the system replenished and operating well into the 2020s.
"What we are doing is ensuring that we can continue provide services that they've come to rely on -- persistant, continuous coverage with no latiency to facilitate their missions," Gramling said.
"Lots of people out there are relying on the system and we need to make sure we keep it healthy to satisfy their needs."
TDRS L should be ready to fly next January and M will follow in December 2015.
"Architecturally they are the same as HIJ with a little better performance," Gramling said. "From a users' perspective, its generally continuing to provide the same services we provided in the past."
This first of the third-generation, known as the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K, or TDRS K, is headed for service 22,300 miles over the Pacific Ocean.
"TDRS K bolsters our network of satellites that provides essential communications to support space exploration," said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator for Space Communications and Navigation at NASA Headquarters. "It will improve the overall health and longevity of our system."
The satellite stood 26 feet tall and weighed over 7,600 pounds at launch, including 3,700 pounds of maneuvering fuel loaded inside the craft. Once fully deployed in space, TDRS K's solar wings will stretch 69 feet tip-to-tip to generate 3,220 watts of power and charge internal nickel-hydrogen batteries.
The primary physical feature of the satellite is two 15-foot-diameter flexible graphite mesh antenna dishes that are folded like taco shells for launch, then spring into shape once released in orbit. They offer gimbal tracking of targeted spacecraft flying beneath the satellite, providing high-gain communications to the station, Hubble and other craft for vital contacts and data dumps.
S-band, Ka-band and Ku-band are the frequencies supported through the TDRS network.
"The voice and data communications the TDRS constellation brings back to Earth every day from the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and many of our NASA science spacecraft -- it touches each of our lives," said Tim Dunn, the NASA launch director for TDRS K.
An artist's concept of TDRS K in orbit. Credit: NASA
Boeing designed, developed and tested the spacecraft in El Segundo, Calif., and NASA provided the launch. Once the aerospace company gets the satellite into the proper orbit, deploys the appendages and demonstrates that the craft works, the space agency then takes ownership for a lifespan of 15 years or more.
"We are launching now for an immediate need and replenishment schedule, we're also expecting some of the other legacy spacecraft from the TRW days to decommissioned in the next years. That's reason for not just K but L and M. It's a fine balance between the existing system, and when they fail, versus the replenishment," Buchanan said.
The three satellites of the third-generation, the Atlas 5 rockets to launch them and some work performed on the ground systems amount to a $1.1 billion program.
"All the Hubble pictures come through TDRS, all the video that we see from the space station and the astronauts and the video we saw from the shuttle, it all comes through TDRS, and then we have all the Earth-orbiting satellites, all that data comes through TDRS," Buchanan said.
"The government has designated TDRS as a critical national asset due to the fact that continuous communications around the world is critical to people's security, weather-related events, that's the important value NASA provides."
Wednesday's launch was the 35th flight for the Atlas 5 since debuting in 2002 and the 30th to occur from the Florida spaceport. Next up is deployment of an advanced Landsat spacecraft for NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey on Feb. 11 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The next Atlas launch from Cape Canaveral is planned for mid-March carrying the Air Force's second Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous satellite, or SBIRS GEO 2, for missile early-warning detection.© 2013 Spaceflight Now Inc.
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Liftoff! NASA Launches Next-Generation Relay Satellite into Space
by Miriam Kramer, SPACE.com Staff Writer
Date: 30 January 2013 Time: 08:48 PM ET
This story was updated at 10:46 p.m. ET.
A next-generation NASA relay satellite was launched into orbit Wednesday (Jan. 30) on a mission to upgrade a vital communications network linking the space agency to its spacecraft orbiting the Earth.
The U.S. space agency's first launch of 2013, the new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K (TDRS-K for short) soared spaceward atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:48 p.m. EST (0148 Jan. 31 GMT).
"We have a customer that's quite thrilled right now to have a healthy satellite on orbit," Tim Dunn the TDRS-K flight director said in a NASA TV interview after the launch.
The TDRS-K satellite is bound for an orbit 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) above Earth, where it will join a constellation of five other satellites currently in orbit to help NASA and other space agencies stay in touch with orbiting spacecraft.
NASA's TDRS communications network began in 1983 and has not received an upgrade since 2002, when the space agency launched its 10th TDRS satellite. Five satellites are currently in use today, with the TDRS-K launch adding one more that number, mission managers said. [Launch Photos: NASA's TDRS-K Satellite Blasts Off ]
The TDRS-K satellite is expected to spend at least 15 years, but agency officials expect that the satellite will exceed its projected life-expectancy. Many of the network's satellites have outlived their expected mission lifetimes, said Jeffrey Gramling, NASA's TDRS project manager.
NASA's TDRS-K communications satellite launches on the night of Jan. 30, 2013 in this screenshot from NASA TV.
CREDIT: NASA TVView full size image
But that does not mean that TDRS-K is unnecessary. One of the satellites currently in active service is slated be retired in the next few months, and other satellites in the aging network are getting older, said Badri Younes, a scientist in NASA's Space Communications and Navigation office.
The satellite launched today was the first of three new satellites expected to enter service between now and 2015 that should further bolster the network. The TDRS-K mission costs between $350 million and $400 million, not including the price of its rocket.
The TDRS-K satellite is 26 feet long (8 meters) and weighs about 7,615 pounds (3,454 kilograms). It was expected to separate from its Atlas 5 rocket one hour and 46 minutes after liftoff, with a Centaur upper stage rocket engine slated to carry it the rest of the way to its geosynchronous orbit.
The satellite is expected to deploy its solar arrays and giant antennas about 11 days after launch, according to a mission description.
NASA Preparing To Launch New Communication Satellite
CREDIT: NASAView full size image
NASA's TDRS satellite network is part of the larger "Space Network" used keep space agencies on the ground in constant communication with orbiting spacecraft. The International Space Station sends all of its data and messages through the network using the TDRS satellites. The rocket that sent TDRS-K into orbit even uses the space network to beam down data, Vernon Thorp, a program manager with NASA said.
TDRS-K is now entering into a three month period of testing and calibrations, but once those tests are complete the NASA research team will decide if the satellite is ready for service.
Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.
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NASA launches communication satellite
By MARCIA DUNN | Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA launched a new communication satellite Wednesday to stay in touch with its space station astronauts and relay more Hubble telescope images.
An unmanned Atlas V rocket blasted into the starry night sky carrying the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.
This is the 11th TDRS satellite to be launched by NASA. The space agency uses the orbiting network to communicate with astronauts living on the International Space Station.
The first TDRS spacecraft flew in 1983; it recently was retired along with No. 4. The second was lost aboard space shuttle Challenger in 1986; Monday marked the 27th anniversary of the launch disaster.
This newest third-generation TDRS carries the letter K designation. Once it begins working, it will become TDRS-11. It will take two weeks for the satellite to reach its intended 22,300-mile-high orbit. Testing will last a few months.
NASA estimates the satellite costs between $350 million and $400 million.
Another TDRS spacecraft, L in the series, will be launched next year.
NASA wants at least seven TDRS satellites working in orbit at any one time. The one launched Wednesday will make eight.
___
Online:
NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdrs/index.html
Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Atlas 5 boosts NASA comsat into space
01/30/2013 10:42 PM
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket rumbled to life and blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday evening, lighting up the night sky as it boosted a powerful new NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite into orbit.
Valued between $350 mission and $400 million -- not counting the rocket -- the Boeing-built TDRS-K satellite is the first of three new models joining NASA's globe-spanning fleet of high-speed relay stations used by the International Space Station, science satellites and deep space probes.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket climbs away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force station, boosting a powerful new NASA data relay satellite into orbit. (Credit: United Launch Alliance)
The 192-foot-tall Atlas 5 rocket's RD-180 first stage engine ignited with a rush of fiery exhaust at 8:48 p.m. EST (GMT-5), quickly throttling up to full power of more than 860,000 pounds of thrust.
Putting on a dramatic evening show for area residents and tourists, the workhorse rocket majestically climbed away from launch complex 41 atop a torrent of brilliant flame and smoothly accelerated as it consumed its first stage liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants.
After arcing away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean, the Russian-designed RD-180 shut down about four minutes after liftoff. Seconds later, the spent first stage fell away and the Centaur second stage's hydrogen-fueled Pratt & Whitney RL-10A engine ignited to continue the push to orbit.
The second stage engine burned for nearly 14 minutes, putting the spacecraft in an initial parking orbit. A second 58-second burn was carried out an hour and 40 minutes after liftoff to complete the launch phase of the mission.
The TDRS satellite then was released into a highly elliptical orbit, with a high point of more than 22,200 miles and a low point of around 2,680 miles.
"We have a successful satellite separation, we just confirmed that by telemetry," said NASA launch director Tim Dunn. "There are a lot of happy folks out there, and we've got a customer who's quite thrilled right now to have a healthy satellite on orbit."
It will take about 10 days to maneuver the TDRS-K satellite into a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator at 150 degrees west longitude. Once on station, engineers plan to spend about three months activating, checking out and calibrating the satellite's systems.
If all goes well, the satellite will be moved to 171 degrees west longitude where it will go into service. But depending on demand, mission managers say, the new satellite may be placed in orbital storage until the additional capability is needed.
Tracking and Data Relay Satellites provide tracking and telemetry for a variety of government satellites, planetary probes, launch vehicles and manned spacecraft like the International Space Station.
The latest generation features S-band antennas that can communicate with five other spacecraft simultaneously. Two 15-foot-wide steerable S-band antennas support both manned missions and science probes like the Hubble Space Telescope. High-speed Ka- and Ku-band antennas handle high-resolution video and high-volume science data.
The first TDRS satellite was launched aboard the shuttle Challenger during the sixth space shuttle mission in April 1983. A second TDRS was lost in the 1986 Challenger disaster.
Since then, NASA launched five more TDRS satellites aboard space shuttles and three more aboard Atlas rockets. TDRS-K is the 11th in the series.
This was the 35th launch of an Atlas 5 rocket, the 30th from Cape Canaveral and the eighth use of the rocket by NASA.© 2011 William Harwood/CBS News
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