Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington       October 2, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1726)

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

RELEASE:02-188

ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE REACHES GEOSYNCHRONOUS 
ORBIT

     After a challenging seven-month planning and recovery 
effort led by Boeing Satellite Systems of El Segundo, Calif., 
the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-I (TDRS-I) reached 
geosynchronous orbit Sept. 30 early in the morning. The 
recovery effort was prompted when one of the two fuel tanks 
aboard the satellite did not properly pressurize shortly 
after its March 8 launch.

"This amazing milestone was achieved through the dedication 
and extensive personal sacrifices of the Boeing/NASA TDRS-I 
mission recovery team," said Robert Jenkens Jr., TDRS Project 
Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 
"These talented and innovative individuals were able to 
collectively overcome many significant obstacles along the 
way," he added.

"Despite what initially appeared to be an impossible 
challenge, the team was able to achieve a geosynchronous 
orbit and demonstrate Boeing's commitment to the success of 
NASA's TDRS-H, -I, -J Program," said Jenkens. "Looking ahead, 
we now have to complete the appendage-deployment phase and 
conduct on-orbit testing to evaluate the state of health and 
performance of the satellite," he said.

The TDRS fleet provides continuous, high-data-rate 
communication with the Space Shuttle, the International Space 
Station and dozens of unmanned scientific satellites, 
including the Hubble Space Telescope, in low-earth orbit. 

-end-

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