Dec 4 2002
From The Space Library
NASA successfully launched the third replenishment spacecraft for its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) fleet. The TDRS-J satellite launched aboard an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 9:42 p.m. (EST). TDRS satellites comprised a communication-signal relay system providing tracking and data-acquisition services between low Earth-orbiting spacecraft and ground-based control and data-processing facilities. The TDRS satellite system served numerous NASA programs, including the HST, the ISS, and the Space Shuttle. NASA had launched the first TDRS satellite in 1983. (The Boeing Company, “Boeing-Built NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Successfully Launched,” news release, 4 December 2002, http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/q4/nr_021204s.html (accessed 28 January 2010); National Space Science Data Center, “NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS),” http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/multi/tdrs.html (accessed 31 October 2008).)
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