How does information get from spacecraft to the scientists?
A new space tracking system has significantly enhanced NASA’s data communications capability. The system’s implementation in the late 1980’s produced a constellation of satellites and a ground terminal, called the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). This system achieves the highest amount of communication coverage ever for low-Earth orbiting satellites. With a growing number of spacecraft placed in orbit for voice, video, and digital uses and with increasing data rates, the need for a more advanced system of communicating with manned and unmanned spacecraft was recognized by engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Researchers determined that a series of geostationary spacecraft in fixed positions above the Earth could provide better tracking of spacecraft than the existing ground stations, could cover almost the entire orbital period of a spacecraft, and simultaneously could support several space vehicles.
