Abstract: Physical programming(PP) was used to develop a decision making method for highly flexible Data Relay Satellite(DRS) configurations.DRS provides numerous communications links such as KSA forward/return link,SMA forward/return link,etc.that results in the complexity of DRS link parameters configuration.Using specific methodology,a multi-objective model was simplified to tri-objective model to configure DRS link parameters.A PP based decision approach was proposed and the procedure of the approach was given.The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the PP based approach for DRS configuration decision.