CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A faint rumbling begins on Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as the engines ignite beneath a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket. Its payload, NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K or TDRS-K, began its climb to orbit at 8:48 p.m. EST. The TDRS-K spacecraft is part of the next-generation series in the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, a constellation of space-based communication satellites providing tracking, telemetry, command and high-bandwidth data return services. For more information, visit http:__www.nasa.gov_mission_pages_tdrs_index.html. Photo credit: NASA_Tony Gray and Rick Wetherington
Photographer NASA_Tony Gray and Rick Wetherington
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