CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Jumping off a Cape Canaveral launch pad to light up the night sky on Wednesday, an Atlas 2A rocket successfully carried an advanced NASA communications satellite into Earth orbit.
Unfazed by the cloudy weather that prevented shuttle Endeavour from landing earlier in the day at Kennedy Space Center, the Lockheed Martin-built Atlas 2A rocket lifted off at 9:42 p.m. EST (0242 GMT Thursday) from complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Some 30 minutes after blast off NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-J) separated from the Centaur upper stage, an event that was greeted with cheers and applause by mission managers.
The launch marked the final step of an $800 million effort to send three new advanced TDRS spacecraft into orbit to increase capacity on NASA's communications network, which handles projects ranging from the Hubble Space Telescope to the shuttle and International Space Station.
"Is this the end of the program? I don't think so," said Bob Spearing, NASA's associate administrator for space communications.
NASA may not need to launch another TDRS spacecraft for another 10 years, Spearing said, but the space agency will have to continue to carefully manage its existing constellation of satellites and explore new technologies, including the use of lasers.
Realizing that the government's communication needs are rapidly growing, especially in the military sector, NASA officials said it's very possible the next TDRS model could be developed in cooperation with the Department of Defense.At present there are nine TDRS spacecraft in Earth orbit, a number that includes six older models launched by the space shuttle and three advanced TDRS satellites launched on Atlas 2A rockets.
You may remember that the second TDRS spacecraft was lost in the 1986 Challenger disaster so NASA contracted with TRW to build a replacement. Boeing Satellite Systems built the advanced models that were launched with the names of TDRS-H, TDRS-I and TDRS-J.
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