KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-J (TDRS-J) has been offloaded at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility from an Air Force C-17 air cargo plane. It will be transferred to the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 (SAEF-2). TDRS-J weighs 3,338 pounds, but at launch will weigh 7,031 pounds when fully fueled with its propellants consisting of monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. The solar arrays, when deployed, will supply the spacecraft with up to 2,200 watts of power. TDRS-J is the third in the current series of three Tracking and Data Relay Satellites designed to replenish the existing on-orbit fleet of six spacecraft, the first of which was launched in 1983. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System is the primary source of space-to-ground voice, data and telemetry for the Space Shuttle. It also provides communications with the International Space Station and scientific spacecraft in low-earth orbit such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and launch support for some expendable vehicles. This new advanced series of satellites will extend the availability of TDRS communications services until approximately 2017. KSC-02pd1573

Similar

A weapons load crew team from the 44th Fighter Squadron

A Royal Australian Air Force member performs pre-flight

Chief Master Sgt. Donnie Dunn, ground safety manager

A C-5M Super Galaxy taxis down the flight line prior

U.S. Airmen assigned to the 20th Component Maintenance

Equipment and medical supplies belonging to a U.S.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-J (TDRS-J) has been offloaded at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility from an Air Force C-17 air cargo plane. It will be transferred to the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 (SAEF-2). TDRS-J weighs 3,338 pounds, but at launch will weigh 7,031 pounds when fully fueled with its propellants consisting of monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. The solar arrays, when deployed, will supply the spacecraft with up to 2,200 watts of power. TDRS-J is the third in the current series of three Tracking and Data Relay Satellites designed to replenish the existing on-orbit fleet of six spacecraft, the first of which was launched in 1983. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System is the primary source of space-to-ground voice, data and telemetry for the Space Shuttle. It also provides communications with the International Space Station and scientific spacecraft in low-earth orbit such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and launch support for some expendable vehicles. This new advanced series of satellites will extend the availability of TDRS communications services until approximately 2017. KSC-02pd1573

description

Summary

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-J (TDRS-J) has been offloaded at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility from an Air Force C-17 air cargo plane. It will be transferred to the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 (SAEF-2). TDRS-J weighs 3,338 pounds, but at launch will weigh 7,031 pounds when fully fueled with its propellants consisting of monomethylhydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. The solar arrays, when deployed, will supply the spacecraft with up to 2,200 watts of power. TDRS-J is the third in the current series of three Tracking and Data Relay Satellites designed to replenish the existing on-orbit fleet of six spacecraft, the first of which was launched in 1983. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System is the primary source of space-to-ground voice, data and telemetry for the Space Shuttle. It also provides communications with the International Space Station and scientific spacecraft in low-earth orbit such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and launch support for some expendable vehicles. This new advanced series of satellites will extend the availability of TDRS communications services until approximately 2017.

Space Shuttle Program

The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.