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NASA to launch latest mission to test laser communication in space - Fox News
Dec 04, 2021 1 min, 20 secs

NASA's next laser communications mission will launch early Sunday morning. .

The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket during a two-hour window scheduled from 4:04 to 6:04 a.m.

Space Force Space Systems Command’s Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission.

The mission, NASA says, will continue the agency's exploration of laser communications to support future missions to the moon and throughout the solar system and is a "giant step towards making operational laser, or optical, communications a reality.".

As space missions generate and collect more data, laser communications offer data rates higher than traditional radio frequency systems, allowing more data per transmission and bandwidth increases of 10 to 100 times more than radio frequency systems. .

With the experimental mission operating for at least two years, once in orbit about 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface, LCRD will begin by "talking" with optical ground stations in California and Hawaii to test the invisible, near-infrared lasers. .

Until the first LCRD user is launched – the Integrated LCRD Low-Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) payload, hosted on the International Space Station (ISS) – test data will be sent up through radio frequency signals from the mission operations center

"Missions in space will send their data to LCRD, which will then relay the data down to designated ground stations on Earth," NASA said. 

Other missions in development will demonstrate and test additional laser communications capabilities, including the Terabyte Infrared Delivery (TBIRD) CubeSat payload, the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O) terminal and the Psyche mission's Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC) payload

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