I use either Orbitron or InstantTrack. I had always wondered what the range circles over Russia were. Does NASA have an official write up on the 'net. Do we know the object numbers for the TDRS birds? My keps suggest there are 9 TDRS birds up there.
If you read enough of the WikiPedia page, you find reference to the 'Official' page... well "msp.gsfc.nasa.gov/tdrss/oview.html" is no more.. I'm looking for some links I had. Here is at least one that works, http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact_sheets/spacesci/tdrs_hij....
And here is a link with LOTS of info about the orbiter communications systems: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-ovcomm.html
I'm really bummed just now over the NASA web site(s)... I used to have links to lots of stuff about TDRSS, but now with the "New & Improved" web site, they have moved/consolidated/shuffled so much, that I get a lot of dead links. Even their search results show "..page has been moved" or other errors . . .
I'll come back when I find the new ones... Here is one I found that DOES work, refering to the contract for the NEXT two TDRS being built : http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_C07064_TDRSS_Awards.html
I can't recall off hand which TDRS number they are, but they are usually refered to by the longitude where they are parked in GEO. There are 9 total, but only 3 of them have channels dedicated full time for human space flight. I'll figure out tomorrow which ones they are, unless someone beats me to it.
The others handle Hubble, and dozens of other science data collectors. Both Shuttle and ISS use both S-band (2 GHz), and Ku band (14 GHz). I knew that these were big satellites, but I learned from one page that these new ones with the solar panels fully extended, were 60 ft across - I realized then that would be as long as my house... and with 2x 15 ft dishes, as wide as.
I discovered after I sent that last one that I didn't mention J-Track... NASA used this a lot in their on-line stuff, a lot of which has moved. I searched the main site, and found this really cool JAVA page that lets you scroll around, click satellites, etc... make it a big window, and this can provide hours of entertainment. Pick satellites from a drop down, or just click a dot... run fast-forward, show lat/log/stats, etc... http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html Pretty slick I'd say. Neat - I just found AO-40 ..!..
OK, more than enough for now ... 73 and good night. Looks like it may be a few more days before Discovery gets off. Shucks... Looks like I may be workin some this weekend.
Thanks /;^)