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Accept you ever wondered how data and communication signals get from spacecraft to NASA mission control on Earth? It's not as unproblematic as pointing an antenna at NASA and striking "ship." World rotates, and then you might not always have direct line of sight to mission control. That'due south why NASA started deploying a fleet of Infinite Network satellites in the 1980s. It'south now into the third generation of these satellites, and a new one has only headed into space where it volition relay information from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. Information technology may be the last one, though.

NASA launched the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) in 1983 aboard a Infinite Shuttle. That was TDRS-A (renamed to TDRS-one in orbit), and we're now upwardly to TDRS-Grand. NASA continued sending the TDRS satellites upwardly aboard shuttles until the early 2000s when the program switched to much cheaper Atlas rockets. That's as well when the 2d-generation TDRS satellites were deployed with vastly improved capabilities like tri-ring communications and autonomous anomaly recovery.

TDRS-Grand is part of the third-generation TDRS armada — when it officially enters operation, it will be renamed TDRS-13. It was launched early August 18th aboard an Atlas 5 rocket operated past United Launch Alliance. The satellite is heading upward to a geosynchronous orbit at an distance of 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers), allowing NASA to heighten the network coverage.

Third generation TDRS satellites are generally the same every bit the 2d-gen that began launching in the early 2000s. The ane notable difference is back up for multiple-admission beamforming on the ground. This is similar to applied science in Wi-Fi routers that focus signals where they are needed to increase throughput. All satellites in the TDRS network beam signals down to a number of tracking stations on the surface in places like Guam and the South Pole.

There are currently four functional offset-gen TDRS satellites, just two other satellites were retired several years agone and de-orbited. In that location was likewise a TDRS satellite aboard the Challenger Shuttle when it exploded during liftoff. All three satellites from the 2nd generation are still operational, and now there are iii third-gen satellites. That works out to x full TDRS satellites in operation. Or rather, it will be x once TDRS-Grand is fully online and becomes TDRS-thirteen.

NASA says this satellite will be vital to the future of its space communications. Even if no new satellites are launched, TDRS-Yard should keep the infinite network operational through at to the lowest degree the mid-2020s. TDRS-1000 is the last third-gen satellite planned, and the agency may not have to launch more. The hope is commercial space advice networks will be online by the time the TDRS is retired.