High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! STS-70 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission to insert a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) into earth orbit. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on July 13, 1995.The primary mission was the launch and deployment of the 7th Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) by means of the two-stage Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) solid rocket. The TDRS was the sixth placed in operational use. The first TDRS was launched aboard STS-6 on 1983-04-04 with a scheduled lifetime of seven years. The second satellite, TDRS-B was lost aboard Challenger on mission STS-51-L. TDRS-3 was deployed from STS-26, TDRS-4 from STS-29, TDRS-5 from STS-43 and TDRS-6 was deployed by STS-54. The on-orbit TDRS network was rearranged and included two fully operational spacecraft occupying the TDRS East and West slots, one on-orbit fully functional spare, TDRS-1, which was nearly depleted having exceeded its planned lifetime, and the partially operational TDRS-3 spacecraft dedicated to supporting the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and providing coverage an area that can't be seen by the other satellites known as the Zone of Exclusion.

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