NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System
is vital in keeping in contact with the space agency's numerous
spacecraft orbiting Earth including the International Space Station
and Hubble Space Telescope.
The key to the system is a constellation of large,
robust satellites equipped with state-of-the-art communications equipment.
The 11th such satellite, TDRS-K,
was launched January 31, 2013,
on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket pushed the spacecraft
to a position 22,000 miles in space.
There it will orbit the Earth at the same speed as the Earth's rotation,
meaning it will appear to hover above one place on Earth.
After unfolding its communications antennae and solar arrays,
the 7,600-pound spacecraft was ready for service collecting
data and commands from other NASA spacecraft orbiting below it,
The information was then sent to ground stations
where researchers could decipher the research and readings.