STS-43 TDRS-E & IUS over the Pacific Ocean after deployment from OV-104’s PLB

STS043-601-042 (2 Aug 1991) --- The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-E), is backdropped against an interesting cloud pattern over blue water soon after leaving the payload bay of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis. The deployment came a mere six hours after the Space Shuttle was launched from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. TDRS, built by TRW, will be placed in a geosynchronous-orbit and after on orbit testing, which requires several weeks, will be designated TDRS-5. The communications satellite will replace TDRS-3 at 174 degrees west longitude. The backbone of NASA's space-to-ground communications, the Tracking and Data Relay satellites have increased NASA's ability to send and receive data to spacecraft in low-Earth orbit to more than 85 percent of the time. The five astronauts of the STS-43 mission are John E. Blaha, mission commander, Michael A. Baker, pilot, and Shannon W. Lucid, G. David Low, and James C. Adamson, all mission specialists.