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Atlas 5 Rocket Launches To Successfully Deploy NASA’s Newest TDRS Satellite

Atlas "Streak" shot photo credit: Mike Killian, http://www.mikekillianphotography.com. Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug
Atlas “Streak” shot photo credit: Mike Killian, http://www.mikekillianphotography.com

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thundered into space carrying NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite satellite on a nearly two hour-long ride to geosynchronous orbit. Lighting up the night sky at 9:33 p.m. EST January 23 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex-41, the successful launch marked the first of 15 ULA launches scheduled for 2014, including 9 Atlas and 6 Delta rockets.

TDRS-L Press Kit
Atlas Launch Mission Book

“ULA and our mission partners are honored to work with the outstanding NASA team and we are proud of the vitally important data relay capabilities that were safely delivered today,” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.

“With 43 successful missions spanning a decade of operational service and launched with a one-launch-at-a-time focus on mission success, the Atlas 5 continues to provide reliable, cost-effective launch services for our nation’s most complex and valued payloads.”

A GoPro Hero 2 At The Launch Pad Captures Atlas V Rocket Launch With NASA’s TDRS L Spacecraft
 

This mission was launched aboard an Atlas 5 401 configuration vehicle, which includes a 4-meter diameter payload fairing. The Atlas booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine, and the Centaur upper stage was powered by a single Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A-4 engine.

This was the 78th launch for ULA in just over seven years, all sucessful. Of those, Atlas accounts for 43 of the missions. During its storied 57 year history, 625 Atlas rockets have been launched, beginning with the early ICBM missile version through its evolution to the current Atlas 5 design.

“TDRS-L and the entire TDRS fleet provide a vital service to America’s space program by supporting missions that range from Earth-observation to deep space discoveries,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “TDRS also will support the first test of NASA’s new deep space spacecraft, the Orion crew module, in September. This test will see Orion travel farther into space than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years.”

NASA established the TDRS project in 1973 to provide around-the-clock and around-the-Earth communications for the network that routes voice calls, telemetry streams and television signals from the International Space Station, as well as telemetry and science data from the Hubble Space Telescope and other orbiting spacecraft.

The TDRS fleet began operating during the space shuttle era with the launch of TDRS-1 in 1983. Of the 11 TDRS spacecraft placed in service to date, eight still are operational. Four of the eight have exceeded their design life.

“This launch 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, Greenbelt, Md.

“Atlas and TDRS have supported each other for almost 20 years, and all three of the second generation satellites, now known as TDRS 8, 9, and 10, launched on Atlas 5ehicles in 2000 and 2002,” said Sponnick. “While we were integrating those spacecraft onto Atlas in the late 1990s, we also developed a new TDRS-compatible transmitter so that Atlas could use the TDRS constellation to receive and distribute the launch vehicle telemetry relay during flight. We are now also using TDRS services for our Delta II and Delta IV programs.”

Working in conjunction with the other TDRS satellites, TDRS-L will convey signals, information and commands from ground controllers to the International Space Station and NASA’s diverse assortment of scientific satellites including the Hubble Space Telescope.

“The TDRS constellation brings back all of the data and video that we see every day from the International Space Station,” said Tim Dunn, NASA launch director. “TDRS also supports all of the data from the Hubble Space Telescope and all of our low Earth orbit NASA science missions.”

The TDRS-L spacecraft is identical to the TDRS-K spacecraft launched in 2013.

The satellite arrived at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility inside an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft from its manufacturing plant in California. It was taken to the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville for numerous tests and was packed inside the two-piece payload fairing that will protect it during the climb into space.

“This one was pretty much fully assembled and ready to go,” said Diana Calero, NASA mission manager. “There were tests done since they wanted to make sure nothing happened on the shipment over from Los Angeles.”

Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems completed the TDRS-L integration and testing at its satellite factory in El Segundo in November and launch processing began after the spacecraft arrived in Florida Dec. 6.

TDRS-M, the next spacecraft in this series, is on track to be ready for launch in late 2015. ULA’s next launch is the Delta IV GPS IIF-5 mission for the Air Force planned for Feb. 20, 2014, from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

Atlas V Rocket Blasts Off With NASA’s TDRS-L Satellite
Part 1 of 2: Atlas V TDRS-L Launch Replays From KSC
Part 2 of 2: Atlas V TDRS-L Launch Replays From KSC
Part 1 – TDRS-L Spacecraft Separation From Atlas V Rocket Upper Stage
Part 2 – TDRS-L Spacecraft Separation From Atlas V Rocket Upper Stage
Timelapse Of Atlas V Rocket With TDRS-L Moving To The Launch Pad
Atlas V Rocket With TDRS-L Rollout To The Launch Pad
 

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