NASA Successfully Receives Laser Message from Deep Space, Advancing Mars Mission

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab at Caltech has achieved "first light" laser communication through its Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment. The experiment successfully transmitted an uplink laser beacon from a specialized telescope at JPL's Table Mountain Facility to the Psyche spacecraft, which is currently en route to the asteroid belt. The optical beam equipment aboard Psyche then sent the lasers back to Caltech's Palomar Observatory. This milestone in laser communication technology is a significant step towards enabling higher-data-rate communications for future space missions, including sending humans to Mars.