ULA Atlas 5 rocket. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

[Via Satellite 01-24-2014] A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket has successfully launched NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS L) payload.

“With 43 successful missions spanning a decade of operational service and launched with a one-launch-at-a-time focus on mission success, the Atlas 5 continues to provide reliable, cost-effective launch services for our nation’s most complex and valued payloads,” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.

First launched in 1983, the TDRS project provides 24/7 around-the-Earth communications for the network that routes voice calls, telemetry streams and television signals from the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and other orbiting spacecraft.