Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

According to NASA’s website, after an astronaut fills out an electronic absentee ballot aboard the space station, the encrypted document goes through a tracking and data relay satellite to a ground antenna at the White Sands Complex in New Mexico.

The trouble is with equipment in New Mexico that serves the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system.

One of the antennas on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite ended up broken earlier this month during final launch preps.

That satellite is the TDRS-M, for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and it was scheduled to launch on August 3rd from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on top of an Atlas V rocket made by the United Launch Alliance.

Six hours later, Americans had more good news from space as they watched the televised deployment from Discovery's cargo bay of the $100 million Tracking and Data Relay Satellite.