CONSOLIDATION OF NASA TRACKING STATIONS INTO A SINGLE GROUND NETWORK I N THE TDRSS ERA

Abstract

NASA has operated two separate worldwide ground-based tracking and data acquisition networks for support of its various missions. The Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN) has provided support to all NASA earth orbiting spacecraft. The Deep Space Network (DSN) supports almost exclusively those unmanned exploratory spacecraft which have been sent far from earth. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), which is conceptually a part of the STDN, will soon be added to the first two networks. The TDRSS will consist of two geosynchronous satellites together with a single ground terminal in White Sands, New Mexico. The TDRSS was conceived as a means of providing improved tracking and data relay service for a large class of the earth orbiting satellites. An investigation was conducted with the objective to reduce the costs of providing support to those spacecraft which were not TDRS-compatible. It was recommended that the core sites of the Ground segment of the STDN (GSTDN) be consolidated into the DSN