NASA Receives Historic Laser Message from 10 Million Miles Away

NASA's Psyche mission, en route to a metal asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, has successfully demonstrated the most distant use of laser communications. The Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration (DSOC) achieved "first light" by sending and receiving data encoded in a laser beam from nearly 10 million miles away. This experiment could pave the way for high-bandwidth laser communications that enable faster data transmission for future space missions, including human exploration of Mars. The DSOC team will continue refining the system's pointing accuracy as the spacecraft travels farther from Earth.