Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!husc6!cfa!cfa250!mcdowell
From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Shuttle-ground communication
Message-ID: <1443@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 89 14:33:23 GMT
References: <1194@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Lines: 25

From article <1194@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM>, by johnson@ncrcce.StPaul.NCR.COM (Wayne D. T. Johnson):
> If my memory is right, there were originally to be 3 TDRS in orbit.  Six were
> build and 2 each (one was a spare) were given to the French and another country
> (my memory fails me here) as well as 1 to be launched on the shuttle.  The 
> French dropped their 2 plus one borrowed from the US on the ocean floor.  Or 
> was this another satellite I'm thinking of?

No, it is another satellite you're thinking of.  The only TDRS on the
ocean floor is the one we dropped there with Challenger.  TDRS is an
entirely U.S.  project.  You may be confused with GTE's Spacenet
satellite or one of INTELSAT's satellites, both much smaller US built
commercial comsats which were delivered by Ariane to the Atlantic Ocean. 
Possibly you are also thinking of the Global Atmospheric Research
Program which had an international set of weather satellites in
geostationary orbit.  Two were American, one European and one Japanese. 
(the Europeans built their own, we didnt have to 'give them' any.  The
Japanese bought two from us but the replacements they use today are
mostly home built). 

At the moment for reasons which totally escape me, there are to be only
two operational TDRS in orbit plus a spare, rather than three operational
ones which would give full coverage. TDRS-E and F are on the manifest to
go up in a few years as backups.

Jonathan McDowell