The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) is a space-based communication system used to provide Tracking, Telemetry, Command, and high bandwidth data return services to its many customers. A major component of the system is the spacecraft itself, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS). Aboard each satellite are multiple antennae that send and receive signals both to and from the ground to multiple satellites simultaneously. As a result, TDRS provides a wide variety of services to meet customers' needs and demands.

The primary payload of each TDRS is the microwave communications equipment and gimbaled antennae. The communications systems of the TDRS Spacecraft are designed to provide services to multiple missions simultaneously. Each TDRS has S band, Ku band, and Ka band (2nd and 3rd generation only), forward, return and telecommunications in order to provide service to electronic communication systems hardware that operates at different carrier frequencies and various data-rates. The 2nd and 3rd generation satellites are able to provide higher bandwidth communications services through Ka-Band.