Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington              March 5, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1726)

Susan Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-7745)

RELEASE: 02-40

ADVANCED NASA COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE 
GIVES BROADBAND ACCESS NEW MEANING

     NASA is ready to launch the second in a series of three 
advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, known as TDRS-I. 
This latest addition to the fleet of seven on-orbit Tracking 
and Data Relay Satellites will provide high data-rate 
communication links with the Space Shuttle, International 
Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and a host of other 
spacecraft, as well as tracking services for expendable 
launch vehicles. 

TDRS-I is scheduled to launch Friday, March 8, at 5:39 p.m. 
EST, the beginning of a 40-minute launch window, which 
extends until 6:19 p.m. EST.  

"We're very excited about the new capabilities the advanced 
TDRS will provide the international space program," said 
Robert Jenkens Jr., TDRS Project Manager at NASA's Goddard 
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.  

Together, the new trio of satellites will help replenish and 
maintain the specialized space communications capabilities of 
the current TDRS constellation, which has served numerous 
national and international space missions since 1983.

TDRS-I features the following capabilities:

*  S-band Single Access: Two 15-foot diameter steerable 
antennas, used at the 2.0 to 2.3 GHz (Giga Hertz) band, 
supply robust communications to user satellites with smaller 
antennas and receive telemetry from expendable launch 
vehicles during launch.

*  Ku-band Single Access: The same two antennas, operating 
from 13.7 to 15.0 GHz, provide higher bandwidth for user 
satellites, provide high-resolution digital television for 
Space Shuttle video communications and can quickly transfer 
large volumes of data from tape or solid-state data recorders 
aboard NASA scientific spacecraft.

TDRS-I also features these new capabilities:

*  Ka-band Single Access: This new higher-frequency service, 
operating from 22.5 to 27.5 GHz, increases data rate 
capabilities to 800 Megabits per second to provide 
communications with future missions requiring high 
bandwidths, such as multi-spectral instruments for Earth 
science applications. 

*  Multiple Access: Using a phased-array antenna, operating 
in the 2.0 to 2.3 GHz range, the system can receive and relay 
data simultaneously from five lower data-rate users, while 
transmitting commands to a single user. 

Transfer orbit operations, which will boost the 7,033-pound 
spacecraft into a geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the 
Earth, are scheduled to occur during the two-week period 
following the launch. Upon completion of on-orbit testing and 
acceptance, TDRS-I will be renamed TDRS-9.  Goddard's 
Operations Services Project will oversee operations of TDRS-
9, using controllers at the White Sands Complex in New 
Mexico.

The TDRS replenishment program costs approximately $840 
million, which includes the three satellites, launch 
vehicles, White Sands Complex modifications and NASA program 
costs. Boeing Satellite Systems of El Segundo, Calif., 
designed, built and tested the three satellites under a 
fixed-price contract with NASA. 

Additional information about TDRS-I, as well as NASA's 
complete Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, is 
available on the following Websites:
 
http://tdrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Tdrsproject/
http://nmsp.gsfc.nasa.gov/tdrss/tdrsshome.html

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