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 12th such satellite, TDRS-L,
was launched January 24, 2014,
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
in Florida.
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 spacecraft was ready for service collecting data and commands
from other NASA spacecraft orbiting below it,
and sending them to ground stations where researchers
could decipher the research and readings.