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TDRS Program Logo Location of TDRS as of March 2019 An unflown TDRS on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.. The U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS, pronounced "T-driss") is a network of American communications satellites (each called a tracking and data relay satellite, TDRS) and ground stations used by NASA for space communications.
True color image of the Earth from space. This image is a composite image collected over 16 days by the MODIS sensor on NASA’s Terra satellite. NASA Earth science satellite fleet as of September 2020, planned through 2023. Earth observation satellite missions developed by the ESA as of 2019.
This is a list of satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GSO). These satellites are commonly used for communication purposes, such as radio and television networks, back-haul, and direct broadcast. Traditional global navigation systems do not use geosynchronous satellites, but some SBAS navigation satellites do.
The main objective of these satellites were weather predictions and the study of the environment of space. Significantly, this program focused on launching satellites to orbit geosynchronously and evaluate the effectiveness of this orbit pattern in observing the Earth. [1] ATS-3, the longest-lasting mission, saw a life span of over 20 years. It ...
2009 – 2013: At the end of its mission ESA's Planck spacecraft was put into a heliocentric orbit and passivated to prevent it from endangering any future missions. 2011 – 2012: CNSA's Chang'e 2. [11] [12] Chang'e 2 was then placed onto a heliocentric orbit that took it past the near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis.
The Envisat satellite is a large, inactive satellite with a mass of 8,211 kg (18,102 lb) that orbits at 785 km (488 mi), an altitude where the debris environment is the greatest—two catalogued objects can be expected to pass within about 200 m (660 ft) of Envisat every year [40] —and likely to increase. Don Kessler predicted in 2012 that it ...
Each satellite weighs 2,030 kg (4,480 lb) at launch and 1,080 kg (2,380 lb) once on orbit. [14] The first attempted launch of a Block IIR satellite failed on 17 January 1997 when the Delta II rocket exploded 12 seconds into flight. The first successful launch was on 23 July 1997. Twelve satellites in the series were successfully launched.
A non-Sun-synchronous orbit (magenta) is also shown for reference. Dates are shown in white: day/month. A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, [1] is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time.