Boeing has announced that the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) K program successfully completed its Ground Detailed Design Review (GDDR), held June 2-4 at NASA's White Sands Complex, N.M.

The milestone brings Boeing one step closer to building the K-L series of TDRS satellites, which will give NASA continuous, high-data-rate communications with the space shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station and dozens of unmanned scientific satellites in low-Earth orbit.

"The successful design review occurred on schedule and moves us toward the TDRS K program's Critical Design Review early next year, where the finished design will be reviewed one final time before proceeding to spacecraft and ground system integration," said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems.

"We have taken another important step toward enhancing the TDRS fleet with better signal processing and transmission, which will increase NASA's operational effectiveness in space."

The GDDR followed the system-level Preliminary Design Review this spring and is the result of an ongoing collaboration among Boeing, teammate General Dynamics C4 Systems and NASA to develop a design that meets all ground system requirements. It evaluated program management, systems and subsystems engineering, safety and mission assurance, and ground software and hardware design.

The review proved that the ground system design is sound and will be ready to support current and future satellites in the TDRS fleet, including TDRS H, I and J, which also were built by Boeing.

NASA's White Sands Complex provides the primary two-way communications between the TDRS satellites and their control and data-processing facilities. General Dynamics has provided engineering, operations and maintenance of the NASA satellite ground system since the inception of the TDRS system.