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Atlas Successfully Launches TDRS Satellite

More Information:

An Atlas 2A successfully launched TDRS I from Cape Canaveral, launch pad 36A, at 2259 UTC (2:39 p.m. PST) on March 8. The NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) network permits the transmission of television, science data, radio signals, spacecraft telemetry and e-mail between Earth and space. The satellite is tentatively planned to operate as TDRS 9 in the network's "East" slot over the Atlantic Ocean. The mission, launch and satellite, are estimated to cost US$220 million.

Controllers at Boeing Satellite Systems' Mission Control Center in El Segundo, Calif. will command TDRS I using NASA's Deep Space Network/Ground Network from the point of spacecraft separation through completion of transfer orbit maneuvers, appendage deployments, acquisition of Earth pointing in geostationary orbit and on-orbit testing. These series of maneuvers will be performed over a 10-day period, boosting the spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit. NASA's White Sands (New Mexico) Complex will then assume satellite commanding for payload on-orbit acceptance testing, to be performed at 150°W. Upon successful completion of on-orbit testing, NASA will formally accept ownership of the spacecraft, renaming it TDRS 9.

TDRS 8(H), is scheduled to be turned on at the end of March. It has been on-orbit since mid-2000, but the ground crew was waiting until the satellite was needed and also studying a problem with the satellite antenna, a problem which had also delayed the TDRS I flight by several months. A design flaw with an onboard antenna had reduced the satellite’s performance. Five of the 18 communication services provided by TDRS 8 were affected by the problem. TDRS 8 is currently co-located with TDRS 7 at the TDRS network’s "West" orbital slot at 171°W.

The 3192 kg (7031 lbm)satellite was built by Boeing Satellite Systems, based on an BSS 601 satellite bus. The satellite carries S-, Ku- and Ka-band transponders. TRDS J is due to be launched on an Atlas 2A rocket this fall.

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March 8, 2002