With TDRS-L Arrival, NASA's Next Tracking and Data Relay Satellite Begins Final Preparations for January Launch

By Ben Evans, on December 11th, 2013

Like an oversized insect, TDRS-L is visually quite distinct from its cousins of the shuttle-launched first generation of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites. Photo Credit: NASA

NASA’s 12th Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) will shortly begin final processing at the Kennedy Space Center, following its delivery last week to Florida aboard a […]

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30 Years Ago: First Shuttle Night Launch, First African-American Astronaut, Oldest Man in Space (Part 1)

By Ben Evans, on August 31st, 2013

“Dan, how do the engines look?” As Gardner worried, and Bluford chuckled, Challenger roared into the history books on the morning of 30 August 1983. Photo Credit: NASA

At about midnight on the rainy evening of 30 August 1983, the adventure began for Guy Bluford, NASA’s first African-American astronaut. Together with his four […]

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30 Years Since STS-6: The Mission of the 'Geritol Bunch' (Part 2)

By Ben Evans, on April 7th, 2013

It was Paul Weitz (seated left) who decided on the F-Troop moniker for his crew, whose number included (left to right) Don Peterson, Story Musgrave, and Karol “Bo” Bobko. Photo Credit: Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de

Thirty years ago this week, the youngest member of the United States’ shuttle fleet took to the skies on her […]

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30 Years Since STS-6: The Rise of the Challenger (Part 1)

By Ben Evans, on April 6th, 2013

Challenger rolls in gloomy midwinter fog towards Pad 39A on 30 November 1982. Photo Credit: NASA

Thirty years ago this week, America’s second space shuttle thundered into orbit for the first time. Challenger spent five days circling the Home Planet, deployed a giant communications and data-relay satellite for NASA, and saw the first […]

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Atlas V Prepares to Loft NASA’s TDRS-K Satellite into Orbit (Part 2)

By Ben Evans, on January 27th, 2013

Not for nothing is TDRS-K’s objective described as “Fleet Replenishment.” This satellite is the first of its kind to be launched in more than a decade and will support voice and data communications traffic between the ground and low-Earth orbit until the middle of the next decade. Image Credit: AmericaSpace/Nathan Moeller

When NASA’s […]

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Atlas V Prepares to Loft NASA’s TDRS-K Satellite into Orbit (Part 1)

By Ben Evans, on January 26th, 2013

TDRS-K’s objective is described as the first of its kind to be launched in more than a decade and will support voice and data communications traffic between the ground and low-Earth orbit until the middle of the next decade. Image Credit: Alan Walters / awaltersphoto.com

Even the girls launch TDRSes, astronaut Mike Mullane […]

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