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71-613: In addition to performing continuing science operations of HST and preparing for scientific exploration with JWST and Roman, STScI manages and operates the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), which holds data from numerous active and legacy missions, including HST, JWST, Kepler , TESS , Gaia , and Pan-STARRS . Most of the funding for STScI activities comes from contracts with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center but there are smaller activities funded by NASA's Ames Research Center , NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , and

142-450: A backup fiber-optic link to transfer data between sites in case of emergency. Each ground station has 19-meter dishes, known as Space-Ground Link Terminals (SGLT), to communicate with the satellites. Three SGLTs are located at STGT, but only two are located at WSGT. The system architects moved the remaining SGLT to Guam to provide full network support for the satellite covering the ZOE. Considered

213-412: A basic calibration that spans the lifetime of each instrument. The calibration program includes measurements that are made relative to on-board calibration sources or to assess internal detector noise levels as well as observations of astronomical standard stars and fields, needed to determine absolute flux conversions and astrometric transformations. The external calibrations on HST typically total 5-10% of

284-534: A broad range of astrophysics including investigations of the Solar System , exoplanet detection and characterization, star formation , galaxy evolution, and physical cosmology . STScI hosts an annual scientific symposium held each spring as well as several smaller scientific workshops. The employment of an active scientific staff at STScI helps to ensure that HST, and eventually JWST, perform at peak capability. STScI's Office of Public Outreach (OPO) provides

355-656: A great deal of follow-up work (see, for example, http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/clearinghouse/clearinghouse.html and http://www.stsci.edu/hst/udf/index_html ). STScI is responsible for developing, enhancing, and maintaining most of the ground systems used to carry out our Hubble science operations described above. These systems originally (1980s, early 1990s) came from several sources, including in-house STScI developments and work done under NASA contracts with various vendors. Over HST's lifetime substantial work has been done on these systems - even while they were supporting daily operations of Hubble. They have been integrated into

426-431: A more effective and easier to operate end-to-end system. They have been through major technology upgrades (e.g., improved operating systems and computer hardware, higher capacity archive storage media). They have also been modified to support the succession of instruments installed in the telescope. In the last several years, they have been modified to support WFC3 and COS, the two new instruments that will be installed during

497-421: A more integrated and user-friendly archive. It will provide raw Hubble data as well as higher-level science products (color images, mosaics, etc.). STScI is responsible for in-flight calibration of the science instruments on HST and JWST. For HST, a calibration plan for the observatory is developed each year. This plan is designed to support the selected GO observation programs for that cycle, as well as to provide

568-611: A remote part of the WSGT, the distance and location of the SGLT is transparent to network users. The Guam Remote Ground Terminal (GRGT) 13°36′53″N 144°51′23″E  /  13.6148°N 144.8565°E  / 13.6148; 144.8565 is an extension of the WSGT. The terminal contains SGLT 6, with the Communication Service Controller (CSC) located at STGT's TDRS Operations Control Center (TOCC). Before

639-531: A requirement for a higher performance space-based communication system arose. At the end of the Apollo program, NASA realized that MSFN and STADAN had evolved to have similar capabilities and decided to merge the two networks to create the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Network (STDN). Even after consolidation, STDN had some drawbacks. Since the entire network consisted of ground stations spread around

710-439: A spacecraft under a certain altitude (646 nautical miles). With the addition of another satellite to cover the ZOE and ground station nearby, 100% coverage could exist. The space-based network study created a system that became the plan for the present-day TDRSS network design. As early as the 1960s, NASA's Application Technology Satellite (ATS) and Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) programs prototyped many of

781-659: A spacecraft's orientation relative to known objects (Sun, Moon, stars or Earth's magnetic field). Tracking network support analyzes and evaluates the quality of the tracking data. The space segment of the TDRSS constellation is the most dynamic part of the system. Even with nine satellites on orbit, the system provides support with three primary satellites, while using the rest as on-orbit spares capable of immediate usage as primaries. The original TDRSS design had two primary satellites, designated TDE, for east , and TDW, for west and one on-orbit spare. The surge in user requirements during

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852-515: A variety of astronomy-related products and features for use by the general public and informal education venues including museums, science centers, planetariums, and libraries. These include background articles, telescope imagery, illustrations, diagrams, infographics, videos, scientific visualizations, virtual reality, and interactives. Most of these resources are distributed via websites developed and managed by STScI, including Hubblesite , Webbtelescope , ViewSpace , and Illuminated Universe . Content

923-764: A very low precipitation level. WSGT went online with the 1983 launch of TDRS-A by the Space Shuttle Challenger. STGT became operational in 1994, completing the system after Flight-6's on-orbit checkout earlier in the year. Additionally, after completion of the second terminal, NASA held a contest to name the two stations. Local middle school students chose Cacique (kah-see-keh), meaning leader for WSGT, and Danzante meaning dancer for STGT. These names seem to have been for publicity purposes only, for official NASA documentation use WSGT and STGT or WSC as designators. WSGT and STGT are geographically separated and completely independent of one another, while retaining

994-827: A wide array of products and services designed to share and communicate the science and discoveries of HST, JWST, Roman, and astronomy in general with the general public. OPO's efforts focus on meeting the needs of the media, the informal science education community, and the general public. OPO produces approximately 40 new press releases each year featuring HST discoveries and science results. These media packages include news stories, Hubble images, explanatory artwork, animations, and supplementary information for use by print, broadcast, and online media. OPO also participates in press conferences for particularly newsworthy discoveries, and conducts science writers' workshops for in-depth sessions with scientists working on current astrophysical research problems. In addition to news releases, OPO develops

1065-479: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . TDRSS The U.S. Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System ( TDRSS , pronounced "T-driss") is a network of American communications satellites (each called a tracking and data relay satellite , TDRS) and ground stations used by NASA for space communications. The system was designed to replace an existing network of ground stations that had supported all of NASA's crewed flight missions. The prime design goal

1136-550: Is a cost-effect wide area network telecommunications service for transmission of data, video, and voice for all NASA enterprises, programs and centers. This part of the STDN consists of infrastructure and computers dedicated to monitor network traffic flow, such as fiber optic links, routers and switches. Data can flow through NISN two ways: using the Internet Protocol Operational Network (IPONET) or

1207-479: Is also distributed via social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. OPO also conducts outreach via live events in person and online. These include a regular Public Lecture Series as well as attendance at various local and national STEM events. OPO also provides support to informal education venues in the form of print materials, program/event resources, and professional development. OPO's outreach efforts are conducted in partnership with

1278-561: Is also used to provide launch data relay for expendable boosters. As early as 1989, it was reported that an important function of TDRSS was to provide data relay for the Lacrosse radar imaging reconnaissance satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office . Almost twenty years later, on November 23, 2007, an on-line trade publication noted, "While NASA uses the (TDRSS) satellites to communicate with

1349-648: Is briefly mentioned in the James Bond movie, Moonraker . It is also brought up in the 1997 movie Event Horizon . Note: while a TDRSS satellite is in the manufacturing process it is given a letter designation, but once it has successfully achieved the correct geosynchronous orbit it is referred to with a number (for example, TDRS-A during development and before on-orbit acceptance, and TDRS-1 after acceptance on orbit and put into operational use). Thus, satellites that are lost in launch failures or have massive malfunctions are never numbered (for example, TDRS-B , which

1420-855: Is broadly related to the scientific mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2009, it was combined with the Spitzer Fellowship that since 2002 had been associated with the Spitzer Space Telescope and science program. It now supports fellows undertaking research associated with all missions within the Cosmic Origins theme: the Herschel Space Observatory , Hubble Space Telescope (HST), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and

1491-502: Is gathered, a long-range observing plan is developed that covers the entire year, finding appropriate times to schedule individual observations, and at the same time ensuring effective and efficient use of the telescope through the year. Detailed observing schedules are created each week, including, in the case of HST operations, scheduling the data communication paths via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System ( TDRSS ) and generating

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1562-704: Is located at White Sands Missile Range , assumed to be at the White Sands TDRSS station. The first seven TDRSS satellites were built by the TRW corporation (now part of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems) in Redondo Beach, California , and all of the satellites since then by Hughes Space and Communications, Inc. , in El Segundo, California , (now a part of the Boeing corporation). The TDRSS system

1633-610: Is one of the largest astronomical databases in the world. The archive was named after Barbara Ann Mikulski , a long time champion of the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, in 2012. It is a component of NASA's distributed Space Science Data Services. The archive contains the data from a number of instruments like Pan-Starrs , Kepler , and TESS , as well as data for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In October 2020

1704-448: Is provided to STScI on what is called a Phase II proposal. The Phase II proposal specifies instrument operation modes, exposure times, telescope orientations, and so on. The STScI staff provide the web-based software called Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs) that allow GOs to estimate how much observing time any of the onboard detectors will need to accumulate the amount of light required to accomplish their scientific objectives. In addition,

1775-478: Is responsible for the construction of TDRS K. TDRSS is similar to most other space systems, whereby it is composed of three segments: the ground, space and user segments. These three segments work in conjunction to accomplish the mission. An emergency or failure in any one segment could have catastrophic impact on the rest of the system. For this reason all segments have redundancy factored in. The ground segment of TDRSS consists of three ground stations located at

1846-651: The European Space Agency (ESA). The staff at STScI consists of scientists (mostly astronomers and astrophysicists), spacecraft engineers, software engineers, data management personnel, education and public outreach experts, and administrative and business support personnel. There are approximately 200 Ph.D. scientists working at STScI, 15 of whom are ESA staff who are on assignment to the HST and JWST project. The total STScI staff consists of about 850 people as of 2021. STScI operates its missions on behalf of NASA,

1917-989: The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). Kepler and JWST science data will be archived and retrieved in similar fashions. The internet serves as the primary user interface to the data archives at STScI ( http://archive.stsci.edu ). The archive currently holds over 30 terabytes of data. Each day about 11 gigabytes of new data are ingested and about 85 gigabytes of data are distributed to users. The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA; http://hla.stsci.edu/ ), currently in development, will act as

1988-560: The National Optical Astronomy Observatories ). STScI provides all technical and logistical support for these activities. The annual cycle of proposal calls was occasionally altered in duration in years when a HST servicing mission was scheduled. Proposers fortunate enough to be awarded telescope time, referred to as General Observers (GOs), must then provide detailed requirements needed to schedule and implement their observing programs. This information

2059-651: The S-band and 800 Mbit/s in the Ku- and Ka-bands . This is mainly used by the United States military. In 2022 NASA announced that it would gradually phase out the TDRS system and rely on commercial providers of communication satellite services. To satisfy the requirement for long-duration, highly available space-to-ground communications, NASA created the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network ( STADAN ) in

2130-718: The White Sands Complex (WSC) in southern New Mexico, the Guam Remote Ground Terminal (GRGT) at Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station Guam , and Network Control Center located at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland . These three stations are the heart of the network, providing command & control services. Under a system upgrade that has been completed, a new terminal has been built at Blossom Point, Maryland. WSC, located near Las Cruces consists of: Additionally,

2201-469: The 1980s allowed NASA to expand the network with the addition of more satellites, with some being co-located in a particularly busy orbital slot. See Tracking and Data Relay Satellite for more details on the satellites. The user segment of TDRSS includes many of NASA's most prominent programs. Programs such as the Hubble Space Telescope and LANDSAT relay their observations to their respective mission control centers through TDRSS. Since crewed space flight

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2272-423: The 4 planned for JWST are summarized in the table below. HST instruments can detect light with wavelengths from the ultraviolet through the near infrared . JWST instruments will operate from the red-end of optical wavelengths (~6000 Angstroms) to the mid-infrared (5 to 27 micrometres). Instruments listed as decommissioned are no longer on board. STScI staff develops the calibration proposals, shepherd them through

2343-693: The GO observing program, with more time required when an instrument is still relatively new. HST has had a total of 12 science instruments to date, 6 of which are currently active. Two new instruments were installed during the May 2009 HST servicing mission STS-125 . Electronic failures in STIS (in 2001) and in the ACS Wide-Field Channel (in 2007) were also repaired on-orbit in May 2009, bringing these instruments back to active status. All 12 HST instruments plus

2414-634: The GRGT was operational, an auxiliary system was located at Diego Garcia . The major parts of the Space Flight Tracking and Data Network (STDN) are: the NASA Integrated Services Network (NISN), network control center (NCC), mission operations center (MOC), spacecraft data processing facility (SDPF), and the multi mission flight dynamics lab (MMFD). NISN provides the data transfer backbone for space missions. It

2485-736: The High Data Rate System (HDRS). IPONET uses the TCP/IP protocol common to all computers connected to the Internet, and is a standard way to ship data. The High Data Rate System transports data rates from 2  Mbit/s to 48 Mbit/s, for specialized missions requiring a high rate of data transfer. HDRS does not require the infrastructure of routers, switches and gateways to send its data forward like IPONET. The NCC provides service planning, control, assurance and accountability. Service planning takes user requests and disseminates

2556-615: The Hubble, Webb, and Roman mission offices and with other institutions under NASA's Universe of Learning . Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes The Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) is an astronomical data archive . The archive brings together data from the visible , ultraviolet , and near-infrared wavelength regimes. The NASA funded project is located at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland and

2627-531: The STScI staff carries out all the steps necessary to implement each specific program, as well as plan the entire ensemble of programs for the year. For HST, this includes finding guide stars, checking on bright object constraints, implementing specific scheduling requirements, and working with observers to understand and factor in specific or any non-standard requirements they may have. Once the Phase II information

2698-457: The STScI will be responsible for using the wavefront sensor system developed by JPL and Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST, the NASA contractor building the observatory) to monitor and adjust the segmented telescope. The post observation support includes a HelpDesk that users can contact to answer their questions about any aspect of observing – from how to submit a proposal to how to analyze

2769-600: The Spitzer Space Telescope. The research may be theoretical, observational, or instrumental. Each year, since HST's launch in 1990, 8 to 12 fellowships are awarded; from 2009 it hovers about 16. STScI also sponsors a summer student intern program that allows talented undergraduate students from around the world to work with the institute's scientific staff, providing these students with hands-on experience in state-of-the-art astronomical research. STScI's full-time scientific staff conducts original research spanning

2840-531: The U.S. and international astronomical community, selected to represent a broad range of research expertise needed to evaluate the proposals. Each proposal cycle typically involves reviewing 700 to 1100 proposals. Only 15 - 20% of these proposals will eventually be selected for implementation. The TAC reviews several categories of observing time, as well as proposals for archival, theoretical, and combined research projects between HST and other space-based or ground-based observatories (e.g., Chandra X-ray Observatory and

2911-516: The WSC remotely controls the GRGT on Guam . The WSC has its own exit from U.S. Route 70 that is for facility staff only. NASA decided on the location of the ground terminals using very specific criteria. Foremost was the ground station's view of the satellites; the location had to be close enough to the equator to view the skies, both east and west. Weather was another important factor – New Mexico has, on average, almost 350 days of sunshine per year, with

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2982-446: The astronomy community. STScI's public outreach activities provide a wide range of resources for media, informal education venues such as planetariums and science museums, and the general public. STScI also serves as a source of guidance to NASA on a range of optical and UV space astrophysics issues. The STScI staff interacts and communicates with the professional astronomy community through a number of channels, including participation at

3053-508: The bi-annual meetings of the American Astronomical Society , publication of regular STScI newsletters and the STScI website, hosting user committees and science working groups, and holding several scientific and technical symposia and workshops each year. These activities enable STScI to disseminate information to the telescope user community as well as enabling the STScI staff to maximize the scientific productivity of

3124-501: The binary command loads for uplink to the spacecraft. Adjustments can be made to both long-range and weekly plans in response to Targets of Opportunity (e.g., for transient events like supernovae or coordination with one-of-a-kind events such as comet impact spacecraft). The STScI uses the Min-conflicts algorithm to schedule observation time on the telescope. The STScI is currently developing similar processes for JWST, although

3195-466: The brightness of the source). They include global effects, such as charge transfer efficiency in the charge-coupled devices , as well as effects specific to modes and filters, such as filter "ghosts" (caused by subtle scattering of light within an instrument). Awareness of these effects can come from STScI staff as they analyze calibration programs, or from observers who find oddities in their data and provide feedback to STScI. The STScI staff also performs

3266-405: The characterization and calibration of the telescope itself. In the case of HST, this has evolved to primarily be a matter of monitoring and adjusting focus, and monitoring and measuring point spread functions . (In the early 1990s, the STScI was responsible for accurate measurement of the spherical aberration , necessary for the corrective optics of all subsequent instruments). In the case of JWST,

3337-399: The data become available to anyone who wishes to access it. Data sets retrieved from the archive are automatically re-calibrated to ensure that the most up-to-date calibration factors and software are applied. The STScI serves as the archive center for all of NASA's optical/UV space missions. In addition to archiving and storing HST science data, STScI holds data from 13 other missions including

3408-413: The data by removing instrumental artifacts. The calibration steps are different for each HST instrument, but as a general rule they include cosmic ray removal, correction for instrument/detector non-uniformities, flux calibration, and application of world coordinate system information (which tells the user precisely where on the sky the detector was pointed). The calibrations applied are the best available at

3479-714: The data. The STScI performs large HST science programs on behalf of the community. These are programs with broad scientific applications. To date, these programs include the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), the Hubble Deep Field South (HDFS), and the Ultra Deep Field (UDF). The raw and processed data for these observations are made available to the astronomy community nearly immediately. These products have then been used by many astronomers in pursuit of their own research topics, and have motivated

3550-720: The early 1960s, called the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN), interacted with crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit. Another network, the Deep Space Network (DSN), interacted with crewed spacecraft higher than 10,000 miles from Earth, such as the Apollo missions, in addition to its primary mission of data collection from deep space probes. With the creation of the Space Shuttle in the mid-1970s,

3621-465: The early 1960s. Consisting of parabolic dish antennas and telephone switching equipment deployed around the world, the STADAN provided space-to-ground communications for approximately 15 minutes of a 90-minute orbit period. This limited contact-period sufficed for uncrewed spacecraft, but crewed spacecraft require a much higher data collection time. A side-by-side network established right after STADAN in

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3692-411: The facilities they operate by responding to the needs of the community and of NASA. Note: Information in this section needs updating. For current activities, consult STScI's official website. The STScI conducts all activities required to select, schedule, and implement the science programs of the Hubble Space Telescope. The first step in this process is to support the annual community-led selection of

3763-416: The final link, sending commands to the spacecraft and performing the operations. The MMFD lab provides flight project and tracking network support. Flight project support consists of orbital and attitude determination and control. Orbital parameters are traced through the actual orbit of the mission spacecraft and compared to its predicted orbit. Attitude determination computes sets of parameters that describe

3834-484: The form of published papers. Results are also incorporated into the Data Handbooks and Instrument Handbooks. In addition to calibration of the instruments, STScI staff characterizes and documents the performance of the instrument, so users can better understand how to interpret their data. These are generally effects that are not automatically corrected for in the pipeline (because they vary with time or depend on

3905-477: The globe, these sites were vulnerable to the political whims of the host country. In order to maintain a high-reliability rate coupled with higher data transfer speeds, NASA began a study to augment the system with space-based communication nodes. The space segment of the new system would rely upon satellites in geostationary orbit. These satellites, by virtue of their position, could transmit and receive data to lower orbiting satellites and still stay within sight of

3976-433: The ground station. The operational TDRSS constellation would use two satellites, designated TDE and TDW (for east and west ), and one on-orbit spare. After the study was completed, NASA realized that a minor system modification was needed to achieve 100% global coverage. A small area would not be within line-of-sight of any satellites – a so-called Zone of Exclusion (ZOE). With the ZOE, neither TDRS satellite could contact

4047-506: The information to the appropriate SN elements. Service control and assurance supports functions of real-time usage, such as receipt, validation, display and dissemination of TDRSS performance data. Service accountability provides accounting reports on the use of the NCC and network resources. The NCC was originally located at Goddard Space-flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland until 2000, when it

4118-522: The next HST servicing mission, and to support the 2- Gyroscope mode of HST operations. STScI also provides subsets of ground system services to other astronomy missions, including FUSE, Kepler, and JWST. STScI's software engineers maintain about 7,900,000 source lines of code . STScI routinely participates with NASA and industry system engineers and scientists in developing the overall mission architecture. For HST, this includes helping to determine and prioritize servicing mission activities and development of

4189-590: The observatory. Real-time operations are staffed around the clock. Flight operations activities for HST are done at NASA's GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland. Science data from HST arrive at the STScI a few hours after being downlinked from TDRSS and subsequently passing through a data capture facility at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Once at STScI, the data are processed by a series of computer algorithms that convert its format into an internationally accepted standard (known as FITS : Flexible Image Transport System ), correct for missing data, and perform final calibration of

4260-581: The operational details will be very different due to its different instrumentation and spacecraft constraints, and its location at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point (~1.5 million km from Earth) rather than the low Earth orbit (~565 km) used by HST. Flight Operations consists of the direct support and monitoring of HST functions in real-time. Real-time daily flight operations for HST include about 4 command load uplinks, about 10 data downlinks, and near continuous health and safety monitoring of

4331-599: The project released the largest and most detailed 3D maps of the Universe , the classification and photometric redshift catalog "PS1-STRM". The data was created using neural networks and combines data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and others. Users can query the dataset online or download it in its entirety of ~300GB. This database -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This telescope -related article

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4402-434: The scheduling process, and analyze the data they produce. These programs provide updated calibration and reference files to be used in the data processing pipeline. The calibration files are also archived so users can retrieve them if they need to manually recalibrate their data. All calibration activity and results are documented, usually in the form of Instrument Science Reports posted to the public website, and occasionally in

4473-486: The scientific programs that will be performed with HST. This begins with publishing of the annual Call for Proposals, which specifies the currently supported science instrument capabilities, proposal requirements and the submission deadline. Anyone is eligible to submit a proposal. All proposals are critically peer-reviewed by the Time Allocation Committee (TAC). The TAC consists of about 100 members of

4544-556: The servicing strategy. For JWST, this includes participating in the definition of high-level science requirements and the overall architecture for the mission. In both cases, the STScI focuses on the scientific capabilities of the mission, and also the requirements for smooth and efficient operations of the observatory. STScI manages the selection of the Hubble Fellowship Program . Since 1990, Hubble Fellowships support outstanding postdoctoral scientists whose research

4615-762: The space shuttle and international space station, most of their bandwidth is devoted to the Pentagon, which covers the lion's share of TDRSS operations costs and is driving many of the system's requirements, some of them classified." In October 2008, the NRO declassified the existence of mission ground stations in the US called Aerospace Data Facility (ADF)- Colorado, ADF-East and ADF-Southwest near Denver, Colorado , Washington, D.C. , and Las Cruces, New Mexico , respectively. ADF-Colorado and ADF-East are known to be located at Buckley AFB , CO and Fort Belvoir, Virginia ; ADF-Southwest

4686-440: The technologies used on TDRSS and other commercial communications satellites, including frequency division multiple-access ( FDMA ), three-axis spacecraft stabilization and high-performance communications technologies. As of July 2009 , TDRS project manager is Jeff J. Gramling, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Robert P. Buchanan, Deputy Project Manager, retired after 41 years at NASA with TDRS as one of final missions. Boeing

4757-450: The time the data passes through the pipeline. The STScI is working with instrument developers to define similar processes for Kepler and JWST data. All HST science data are permanently archived after passing through the calibration pipeline. NASA policy mandates a one-year proprietary period on all data, which means that only the initial proposal team can access the data for the first year after it has been obtained. Subsequent to that year,

4828-450: The worldwide astronomy community, and to the benefit of the public. The science operations activities directly serve the astronomy community, primarily in the form of HST and JWST (and eventually Roman) observations and grants, but also include distributing data from other NASA and ground-based missions via MAST. The ground system development activities create and maintain the software systems that are needed to provide these services to

4899-599: Was one of the primary reasons for building TDRSS, the space shuttle and International Space Station voice communications are routed through the system. The TDRSS system has been used to provide data relay services to many orbiting observatories, and also to Antarctic facilities such as McMurdo Station by way of the TDRSS South Pole Relay. The US-built sections of the International Space Station (ISS) use TDRSS for data relay. TDRSS

4970-454: Was relocated to the WSC. The MOC is the focal point of spacecraft operations. It will schedule requests for support, monitor spacecraft performance and upload control information to the spacecraft (through TDRSS). MOC consists of principal investigators, mission planners and flight operators. Principal investigators initiate requests for SN support. Mission planners provide documentation for the spacecraft and its mission. And flight operators are

5041-568: Was to increase the time spacecraft were in communication with the ground and improve the amount of data that could be transferred. Many Tracking and Data Relay Satellites were launched in the 1980s and 1990s with the Space Shuttle and made use of the Inertial Upper Stage , a two-stage solid rocket booster developed for the shuttle. Other TDRS were launched by Atlas IIa and Atlas V rockets. The most recent generation of satellites provides ground reception rates of 6 Mbit/s in

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