Goddard Projects Directory

The search for T produced 29 results out of 249 records TDRS 7 Launch Date: 07/13/1995 A geostationary Tracking and Relay Sattelite parked on 150 W longitude for testing F and Ku bands between spacecraft and ground. When first launched, the TDRS satellites were the largest, most sophisticated communications satellites ever built. The seventh vehicle in the series was ordered as a replacement when TDRS-2 was lost in the Challenger accident. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite G, TDRS G, |  NSSDC Link  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS 9 Launch Date: 3/8/2002 Tracking and Data Relay Satellite I was launched on March 8, 1992 but initially did not reach the planned geosynchronous orbit due a failure of one of onboard fuel tanks to properly pressurize. However after a 7 month long effort the satellite was successfully raised to the proper orbit. When commissioned for service in 2003, the satellite will be known as TDRS 9. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite I, TDRS I |  GSFC Link  |  NSSDC Link  |   TDRS A Launch Date: 04/04/1983 Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) to provide improved tracking and data acquisition services to spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 1, TDRS 1 |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS B Launch Date: 01/28/1986 After the launch of the first TDRSS spacecraft, NASA was ready to launch the second satellite of the constellation, TDRS-B. This satellite would bring the system up to full operational capability. That was, however, not to be. Tragically, just 73 seconds after liftoff, Challenger was enveloped in a fireball that claimed both crew and vehicle. The accident was blamed on an O-ring failure in the right-hand Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). Extremely cold conditions were named as a contributing cause. Besides the deployment of TDRS-B, the mission was to have temporarily deployed an astronomy satellite. It would have been captured after two days in space to be brought home. Observations of Halley's Comet and classes being taught from space were also on the flight plan. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 2, TRDS 2 |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS C Launch Date: 9/29/1988 STS-26 will have as its primary payload the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-C) that will complete the constellation needed to communicate with spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. TDRS-B was lost in the 51-L Challenger accident. A third TDRS will be launched on a later Shuttle mission to replace the first TDRS, which then will be used as an on-orbit spare in the event that one of the two operational satellites fails. TDRS-C will be deployed 6 hours, 13 minutes into the mission on flight day one. There were two additional deploy times available on that day and one on the following day. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 3, TDRS 3 |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS D Launch Date: 03/13/1989 With the launch of TDRS-D, NASA would finally have full operational capability with the TDRSS system. The satellite was deployed from the orbiter's payload bay just hours after reaching space. Following the two burns of the Inertial Upper Stage, the new TDRS-4 was placed into its proper Geostationary Orbit 22,300 miles high. Other payloads included the Orbiter Experiments Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System-1 (OASIS-1), a cooling system designed for a spin-off of the International Space Station (ISS), a crystal growth experiment, and a hand-held IMAX camera. The STS-29 crew was commanded by Mike Coats, with pilot John Blaha and mission specialists Jim Bagian, Jim Buchli and Bob Springer. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 4, TDRS 4 |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS F Launch Date: 01/13/1993 TDRS continues telecommunications support of the Earth-orbiting spacecraft. A fifth TDRS spacecraft, TDRS-F, was slated for launch in early 1993. Successful deployment of this TDRS, which will become TDRS-6 in orbit, will fulfill the requirement for two fully operational satellites and a fully operational on- orbit, ready-reserve capability, and ensure that communications, telemetry and data acquisition capabilities required by space missions will not be jeopardized. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 6, TDRS 6 |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS H Launch Date: 06/30/2000 The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) H Program Level Requirements are to provide a spacecraft capable of supporting customer services provided by the current (F-1 though F-7) fleet, upgrade the multiple access and single access service performance, provide a new Ka-band service, upgrade the existing ground facilities at the WSC to allow compatibility with the new spacecraft, and provide launch services of the intermediate expendable launch vehicle to place the spacecraft into orbit. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 8, TDRS 8 |  GSFC Link  |  NSSDC Link  |  Educational Resource  |   TDRS I Launch Date: 10/29/2001 The objective of the Replenishment Spacecraft TDRS H, I, J Program is to provide three (3) spacecraft to continue Space Network tracking, data, voice and video services to NASA scientific satellites, the Shuttle, International Space Station, and to other NASA customers by replacing the current constellation of geo-synchronous TDRS satellites (1 through 7) as they begin to exceed their lifetimes in the late 1990's. The functional and technical performance requirements for the satellites will be virtually identical to those of the current satellites except for improved multiple access and S-band single access performance, addition of Ka-band, and spacecraft collocation. The three spacecraft will be placed in orbit by expendable launch vehicles (ELV). Both the spacecraft and ELV are procured utilizing two separately competitively awarded fixed price contracts. The spacecraft contract, awarded to Boeing Satellite Systems, Inc. (BSS), formerly Hughes, will provide communications services compatible with the existing services provided via TDRS 1 through 7. The spacecraft contractor is also responsible for changes to the ground terminal facilities required to incorporate new telemetry and command functions unique to the new spacecraft, and other minor changes to accommodate enhanced multiple access. Lockheed Martin will supply the three Atlas IIA ELV's, procured under the existing IELV contract. Other Name(s):  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite I |  Educational Resource  |   Telesat B Launch Date: 04/20/1973 Second domestic communications satellite for Canada. Other Name(s):  Anik A2, Anik 2, Anik-B, Telesat 2 |  NSSDC Link  |   Telstar I Launch Date: 07/10/1962 Joint AT&T-NASA investigation of wideband satellite communications. Other Name(s):  Telstar 1 |  NSSDC Link  |   Telstar II Launch Date: 05/07/1963 Joint AT&T-NASA investigation of wideband communications. Other Name(s):  Telstar 2 |  NSSDC Link  |   Terra Launch Date: 07/28/1999 The spacecraft formerly known as EOS-AM 1 will be the first major satellite of the Earth Observing System. The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a science and observation program that will provide long-term (15-year) data sets for Earth system science in order to gain an understanding of the interactions between Earth's land, atmosphere, oceans, and biology. The EOS program is the centerpiece in NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE). The EOS program was restructured in response to direction from the EOS Engineering Review Committee, U.S. Congress, and the EOS Payload Advisory Panel to fly EOS instruments on intermediate-sized and smaller spacecraft instead of on large space platforms. Other Name(s):  Earth Observing System-1, EOS-1, EOS-AM1 |  GSFC Link  |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Additional URL 2  |  Image Gallery  |   THEMIS Launch Date: 02/16/2007 NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) 2-year mission consists of five identical probes that will track these violent colorful eruptions of auroras near the North Pole. Other Name(s):   |  GSFC Link  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Educational Resource  |   TIMED Launch Date: 12/07/2001 The Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics mission is intended to understand the influence of the Sun on the Earth, the influence of human activities on Earth's atmosphere, study the least explored region of the atmosphere, and to improve the prediction of Space Weather. With its post-launch engineering checkouts complete, NASA's TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics) spacecraft is now globally studying one of Earth's final atmospheric frontiers. Since its launch on December 7, 2001, TIMED principal investigators and mission operations personnel at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. and the spacecraft instrument teams located in Colorado, Michigan, Virginia and Maryland have been conducting routine engineering checkouts of the spacecraft and its four instruments and preparing TIMED for data collection. TIMED will be studying the basic structure of the MLTI (Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere) - a mysterious region of space located about 40-110 miles above the Earth. During its two-year science mission, TIMED will examine the MLTI's chemistry and flow of energy to and from this layer of the atmosphere. Scientists will analyze how the region affects and is affected by the lower atmosphere, how it influences the space near Earth occupied by low-Earth orbiting satellites, and how events on the Sun affect the MLTI. Orbiting from a unique vantage point above the MLTI, TIMED will use its remote sensing instruments, together with a network of ground-based observation sites to obtain an unprecedented set of comprehensive global measurements of the region. TIMED is the first of six Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) to launch. STP missions focus mainly on responses to two goals of the Sun-Earth Connection theme: (1) How and why does the Sun vary; and (2) How do the Earth and planets respond? The STP Program Office at Goddard manages the TIMED mission for the Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C. APL designed, built and operates TIMED, and manages the mission's Science Data Center for NASA. Other Name(s):  Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics |  GSFC Link  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Additional URL 2  |  Image Gallery  |  Educational Resource  |   Tiros I Launch Date: 04/01/1960 Tested experimental television techniques that led to a worldwide meteorological information system. Obtained first global cloud cover photograph from near circular orbit. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 1, Tiros 1, Tiros-A |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros III Launch Date: 07/12/1961 Obtained photographs of Earth's cloud cover; suite of GSFC radiometers determined amount of solar energy absorbed reflected and emitted by the Earth. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 3, Tiros 3, A 3, Tiros-C |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros IV Launch Date: 02/08/1962 Continued development of weather satellite system. Obtained cloud and radiation data for meteorological studies. Two radiometers supplied by GSFC. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 4, Tiros 4, Tiros-D |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros N Launch Date: 10/13/1978 Third generation polar orbiting environmental spacecraft to provide improved meteorological and environmental data. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite Next-generation |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros V Launch Date: 06/19/1962 Continued devlopment of weather satellite system. Two TV camera systems from GSFC. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 5, Tiros 5, Tiros-E |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros VI Launch Date: 09/18/1962 Continued devlopment of weather satellite system. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 6, Tiros 6, Tiros-F |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros VII Launch Date: 06/19/1963 Viewed the Earth's surface, cloud cover, and atmosphere by means of TV cameras and radiations sensors. GSFC provided radiometer and electron temperature experiment. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 7, Tiros 7, Tiros-G |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros VIII Launch Date: 12/21/1963 Continued development of weather satellite program. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 8, Tiros 8, A 53, Tiros H |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   Tiros X Launch Date: 07/01/1965 First U.S. Weather Bureau-funded Tiros; obtained maximum coverage of 1965 hurricane and typhoon season. Other Name(s):  Television and InfraRed Operational Satellite 10, Tiros 10, OT 1 |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   TOMS-5 Launch Date: 11/15/2000 The fifth Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer instrument will be carried on an OSC Microstar bus launched by a Pegasus. The Quik TOMS mission is to continue daily mapping of the global distribution of the Earth's total column of the atmospheric ozone with Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Flight Model. The TOMS-5 science objectives are to determine long term change in global total ozone level, to understand the processes related to the Other Name(s):  Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer 5 |  GSFC Link  |  Image Gallery  |  Educational Resource  |   TOMS-ADEOS Launch Date: 08/17/1996 A TOMS instrument onboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) collected data until the satellite suffered an on-orbit solar panel failure on June 30, 1997. ADEOS ran the series of TOMS total ozone and volcanic sulfur dioxide observations that began with the Nimbus-7 satellite in 1978 and continued through the operation of a TOMS on the Russian Meteor-3 satellite until that instrument ceased functioning in December 1994. Data from another TOMS instrument currently flying on the recently launched NASA TOMS-Earth Probe spacecraft complements the global ADEOS data by providing high-resolution imagery of features related to urban pollution, bio mass burning, forest fires, desert dust and small volcanic eruptions, in addition to ozone measurements. The principle mission of TOMS/ADEOS is to monitor the global ozone trends during the period when CFC-related depletion is predicted to reach a maximum. Other Name(s):  Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Advanced Earth Observation Satellite, ADEOS, Midori |  GSFC Link  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |   TOMS-EP Launch Date: 07/02/1996 The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe measures global variation of ozone in the upper atmosphere. Earth Probe TOMS has begun to experience two problems. These include a drop in throughput of the instrument of about 50%, and a cross track bias such that ozone measured when looking to the far left of the orbit track is 2 to 3% lower than ozone measured when looking to the far right of the orbit track. This bias is visible in the TOMS images near the equator, where the ozone distribution is most uniform. Both changes appear to result from some real change in the front optics of the instrument, probably the scan mirror that is not completely understood. The drop in throughput is only a minor problem and is dealt with in the processing. The scan bias is a more difficult problem. Other Name(s):  Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe, SMEX/TOMS-Earth Probe, Small Explorer/TOMS-Earth Probe, TOMS-EP96, TOMS-Earth Probe |  GSFC Link  |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Additional URL 2  |   TRACE Launch Date: 04/01/1998 The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer studies interactions between plasmas and magnetic fields by observations of the Sun's corona. TRACE will explore the three-dimensional magnetic structures that emerge through the visible surface of the Sun - the Photosphere - and define both the geometry and dynamics of the upper solar atmosphere: the Transition Region and Corona. The magnetic field geometry can be seen in images of solar plasma taken in wavelengths emitted or absorbed by atoms and ions formed in different temperature ranges. TRACE will nearly simultaneously capture high spatial and temporal resolution images of the transition region. The TRACE data will provide quantitative observational constraints on the models and thus stimulate real advances in our understanding of the transition region. The solar atmosphere is constantly evolving because the magnetic fields that dominate the Corona are continuously displaced by the convective motions in the outer layers of the Sun just below the Photosphere. A major objective of the TRACE investigation is to explore the relation between diffusion of the surface magnetic fields and the changes in heating and structure throughout the Transition Region and Corona. The simultaneous movies of the 6,000 to 10,000,000 K volume of the solar atmosphere will allow us to determine the rate of change of the magnetic topology and the nature of the local restructuring and reconnection processes. TRACE, a three-axis stabilized spacecraft, uses an instrument provided guide telescope as the fine Sun sensor. The spacecraft must null the peak error to the guide telescope to within 20 arcseconds. The TRACE telescope has an image motion compensation mechanism which can attenuate jitter to about 0.1 arcseconds resolution. The Attitude Control System (ACS) uses three magnetic-torquer coils, one digital Sun sensor, six coarse Sun sensors, four reaction wheels, one three-axis magnetometer, and three two-axis inertial gyros. The ACS uses the spacecraft computer to perform closed loop attitude determination and control. Other Name(s):  Transition Region and Coronal Explorer, Explorer 73, SMEX/TRACE, Small Explorer/TRACE, SMEX 4 |  GSFC Link  |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Additional URL 2  |  Image Gallery  |  Educational Resource  |   TRMM Launch Date: 11/27/1997 The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), part of the Earth Probe series, measures monthly and seasonal rainfall over the global tropics and subtropics. TRMM is the first mission dedicated to measuring tropical and subtropical rainfall through microwave and visible infrared sensors and includes the first spaceborne rain radar. TRMM is a joint project between the United States and Japan. Tropical rainfall comprises more than two-thirds of global rainfall. It is the primary distributor of heat through the circulation of the atmosphere. Understanding rainfall and its variability is crucial to understanding and predicting global climate change. Our current knowledge of rainfall is poor, especially over the oceans. By use of a low-altitude orbit of 217 miles (350 kilometers), TRMM's complement of state-of-the-art instruments will provide more accurate measurements. These new measurements will increase our knowledge of how rainfall releases heat energy to drive atmospheric circulation. TRMM's orbit will range between 35 degrees north and 35 degrees south of the equator, allowing TRMM to fly over each position on the Earth's surface at a different local time each day. Scientist can use data from this kind of orbit to calculate rain variations over a 24-hour period; the result will be a data set vastly more informative than any now available. Other Name(s):  Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission |  GSFC Link  |  Project Information  |  NSSDC Link  |  Additional URL 1  |  Additional URL 2  |  Image Gallery  |  Educational Resource  |