Atlas V launches TDRS-K

1/30/13 ~ 8:48 p.m.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket zooms into space with NASA's Tracking & Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-K, on the
evening of January 30. TDRS-K is the first of NASA's main communications satellites launched in a decade, and continues
replenishing a fleet started for the space shuttle program in 1983 with STS-6. The TDRS satellite system relays data from
major orbiting spacecraft including the International Space Station (and the shuttle, previously) as well as science
missions like the Hubble Space Telescope and classified payloads from the National Reconnaissance Office.

WINNER, BELOW!: 2020 Aviation Week & Space Technology photo contest, third place