Tags: TDRS, United Launch Alliance, NASA, Boeing, Air Force
Publication: FloridaTODAY.com
Publication Date: 10/29/2012

TDRS-K will increase NASA’s signal processing and transmission capabilities among the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station and dozens of unmanned scientific satellites in LEO. Image credit: Boeing photo

Delay on the U.S. Air Force‘s third launch of an X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle has created a chain reaction. The launch an Air Force’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-K) has also been postponed from its Dec. 13 scheduled date to the second half of January.

United Launch Alliance ordered the deferrals to investigate the cause of the lost of thrust of an upper stage engine on their Delta IV rocket during a launch on Oct. 4. While the Air Force’s TDRS-K satellite is set to be launched on an Atlas V rocket, it uses similar RL-10 upper stage engines as the Delta IV.

With this launch now set for January, it’s shaping to be a busy month on the Eastern Range. The Air Force is also planning to launch a military communications satellite on a Delta IV rocket, and it is likely that SpaceX will launch its second resupply mission to the ISS on their Flacon 9 rocket in January.

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