ARG@SU-AI@sri-unix.UUCP (08/18/83)
From: Ron Goldman <ARG@SU-AI>
a288 2053 15 Aug 83
AM-Satellite,320
Test of Communications Satellite Is Successful
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (AP) - A $100 million communications satellite
that will be used in space shuttle flights has successfully completed
its first operational test, relaying information from another
satellite to the Earth, a spokeswoman said Monday.
The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, known as TDRS-1, was able to
relay data from the earth resources satellite Landsat 4 to the TDRS
ground station in White Sands, N.M., said TRW Inc. spokeswoman Julie
Wright.
''For the first time in the history of scientific data-gathering
satellites, two unmanned orbiting satellites communicated with euch
other and a groansmission,'' Ms. Wright said.
TDS-1 which was designed and built by Redondo Beach-based TRW, was
sent into the wrong orbit by a misfiring rocket following its launch
last April. It took scientists until June 29 to correct the error.
The satellite is now in an orbit 22,236 miles above a fixed point on
Earth. Lower-orbiting satellites such as Landsat circle around about
175 to 300 miles above the Earth's surface and can therefore only be
tracked by ground stations over about 15 percent of their orbit.
But because of its high orbit, TDRS-1 is able to receive and relay
signals from the lower-orbiting satellites over a much larger area.
Ms. Wright said once a sister satellite, TDRS-2, is in place, the
two TDRS satellites will be able to track satellites over an estimated
85 percent of the Earth's surface. The second TDRS is scheduled for
launch next spring.
Landsat 4 has been unable to communicate to ground stations at all
since one of its transmitter bands failed earlier this year, Ms.
Wright said.
But using a different transmission band in the tests Friday and
Saturday, Landsat 4 was able to beam computerized images up to TDRS-1,
which in turn sent them down to White Sands.
The tests were conducted from White Sands and NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Ms. Wright said.
ap-ny-08-15 2354EDT
***************CSvax:cmh@pur-ee.UUCP (08/19/83)
Is this past failure of Landsat why Reagan wants to sell the system? Chris Hoffmann.