TDRS L, shown here at the Boeing satellite facility, is scheduled for launch next year.
Image Credit: Boeing

[Via Satellite 08-20-13] Two Boeing Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) have completed testing milestones – one in space and the other on Earth – marking more progress in enhancing the tracking and communications network used by NASA and its customers. The spacecraft are the first two of a set of three next-generation satellites that features improved payload capacity and enhanced communications bandwidth at the lowest cost.

The orbiting TDRS K satellite has completed all testing since its January launch and has officially been handed over to NASA, providing another vital information link between low-Earth-orbiting spacecraft and NASA’s satellite control centers. The next satellite in the program, TDRS L, completed performance testing at the Boeing satellite facility in El Segundo and is ready for shipment to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., later this year in advance of a 2014 launch.

The third satellite in the series, TDRS M, completed a critical design review with NASA and is now in the production phase and available for launch in 2015. Boeing built the previous set of three TDRS satellites – H, I and J – which have been in use since 2000 and 2002.