N-213 Laser Optics Laboratory

N-213 Laser Optics Laboratory with Dana Lynch

N-213 Laser Optics Laboratory - double exposed polaroid by Ken McAlister (engineer) 3-17-89 with Dana Lynch

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration's flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021, before being installed inside its box-like enclosure that was later integrated with NASA's Psyche spacecraft. The transceiver consists of a near-infrared laser transmitter to send high-rate data to Earth, and a sensitive photon-counting camera to receive ground-transmitted low-rate data. The transceiver is mounted on an assembly of struts and actuators – shown in this photograph – that stabilizes the optics from spacecraft vibrations. The DSOC experiment is the agency's first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system. DSOC is a system that consists of this flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver. New advanced technologies have been implemented in each of these elements. The transceiver will "piggyback" on NASA's Psyche spacecraft when it launches in August 2022 to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. The DSOC technology demonstration will begin shortly after launch and continue as the spacecraft travels from Earth to its gravity-assist flyby of Mars. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24569

In this infrared photograph, the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California, beams its eight-laser beacon (at a total power of 1.4 kilowatts) to the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) flight laser transceiver aboard NASA's Psyche spacecraft. The photo was taken on June 2, 2025, when Psyche was about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth. The faint purple crescent just left of center and near the laser beam is a lens flare caused by a bright light (out of frame) reflecting inside the camera lens. As the experiment's ground laser transmitter, OCTL transmits at an infrared wavelength of 1,064 nanometers from its 3.3-foot-aperture (1-meter) telescope. The telescope can also receive faint infrared photons (at a wavelength of 1,550 nanometers) from the 4-watt flight laser transceiver on Psyche. Neither infrared wavelength is easily absorbed or scattered by Earth's atmosphere, making both ideal for deep space optical communications. To receive the most distant signals from Psyche, the project enlisted the powerful 200-inch-aperture (5-meter) Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, as its primary downlink station, which provided adequate light-collecting area to capture the faintest photons. Those photons were then directed to a cryogenically cooled superconducting high-efficiency detector array at the observatory where the information encoded in the photons could be processed. Managed by JPL, DSOC was designed to demonstrate that data encoded in laser photons could be reliably transmitted, received, and then decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth out to Mars distances. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency's Psyche mission in 2023, the demonstration completed its 65th and final "pass" on Sept. 2, 2025, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal from 218 million miles (350 million kilometers) away. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26661

This infrared photograph shows the uplink laser beacon for NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment beaming into the night sky from the Optical Communications Telescope Laboratory (OCTL) at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California. Attached to the agency's Psyche spacecraft, the DSOC flight laser transceiver can receive and send data from Earth in encoded photons. As the experiment's ground laser transmitter, OCTL transmits at an infrared wavelength of 1,064 nanometers from its 3.3-foot-aperture (1-meter) telescope. The telescope can also receive faint infrared photons (at a wavelength of 1,550 nanometers) from the 4-watt flight laser transceiver on Psyche. Neither infrared wavelength is easily absorbed or scattered by Earth's atmosphere, making both ideal for deep space optical communications. To receive the most distant signals from Psyche, the project enlisted the powerful 200-inch-aperture (5-meter) Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, as its primary downlink station, which provided adequate light-collecting area to capture the faintest photons. Those photons were then directed to a cryogenically cooled superconducting high-efficiency detector array at the observatory where the information encoded in the photons could be processed. Managed by JPL, DSOC was designed to demonstrate that data encoded in laser photons could be reliably transmitted, received, and then decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth out to Mars distances. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency's Psyche mission in 2023, the demonstration completed its 65th and final "pass" on Sept. 2, 2025, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal from 218 million miles (350 million kilometers) away. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26662

The High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO) instrument head, which houses the lidar instrument, is installed onto the DC-8 airborne science laboratory at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The gold and blue casing holds the laser, optics, detectors, and electronics, which are at the heart of the lidar.

Megan MacDonald, left, leads NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Victor J. Glover, right, on a tour of the Laser Enhanced Arc Jet Facility (LEAF) laboratory, in N238. The LEAF laser augments the hypersonic shock heating experienced by a test sample during an arc jet test and provides improved test simulation quality by supplying an intense source of optical heating while the arc jet flow provides shock-driven convective heating.

Megan MacDonald, left, leads NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Victor J. Glover, right, on a tour of the Laser Enhanced Arc Jet Facility (LEAF) laboratory, in N238. The LEAF laser augments the hypersonic shock heating experienced by a test sample during an arc jet test and provides improved test simulation quality by supplying an intense source of optical heating while the arc jet flow provides shock-driven convective heating.

NASA researcher Dr. Donald Frazier uses a blue laser shining through a quartz window into a special mix of chemicals to generate a polymer film on the inside quartz surface. As the chemicals respond to the laser light, they adhere to the glass surface, forming optical films. Dr. Frazier and Dr. Mark S. Paley developed the process in the Space Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Working aboard the Space Shuttle, a science team led by Dr. Frazier formed thin-films potentially useful in optical computers with fewer impurities than those formed on Earth. Patterns of these films can be traced onto the quartz surface. In the optical computers of the future, thee films could replace electronic circuits and wires, making the systems more efficient and cost-effective, as well as lighter and more compact. Photo credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Shown here is a prototype of the Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC, ground receiver detector built by the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The prototype superconducting nanowire single-photon detector was used by JPL technologists to help develop the detector that – from a station on Earth – will receive near-infrared laser signals from the DSOC flight transceiver traveling with NASA's Psyche mission in deep space. DSOC will test key technologies that could enable high-bandwidth optical, or laser, communications from Mars distances. Bolted to the side of the spacecraft and operating for the first two years of Psyche's journey to the asteroid of the same name, the DSOC flight laser transceiver will transmit high-rate data to Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, which houses the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope. The downlink detector converts optical signals to electrical signals, which can be processed and decoded. The detector is designed to be both sensitive enough to detect single photons (quantum particles of light) and able to detect many photons arriving all at once. At its farthest point during the technology demonstration's operations period, the transceiver will be up to 240 million miles (390 million kilometers) away, meaning that by the time its weak laser pulses arrive at Earth, the detector will need to efficiently detect a trickle of single photons. But when the spacecraft is closer to Earth and the flight transceiver is delivering its highest bit rate to Palomar, the detector is capable of detecting very high numbers of photons without becoming overwhelmed. Because data is encoded in the timing of the laser pulses, the detector must also be able to determine the time of a photon's arrival with a precision of 100 picoseconds (one picosecond is one trillionth of a second). DSOC is the latest in a series of optical communication technology demonstrations funded by NASA's Technology Demonstrations Missions (TDM) program and the agency's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages DSOC for TDM within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and SCaN within the agency's Space Operations Mission Directorate. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25840

The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration's flight laser transceiver can be easily identified on NASA's Psyche spacecraft, seen in this December 2021 photograph inside a clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. DSOC's tube-like gray/silver sunshade can be seen protruding from the side of the spacecraft. The bulge to which the sunshade is attached is DSOC's transceiver, which consists of a near-infrared laser transmitter to send high-rate data to Earth and a sensitive photon-counting camera to receive ground-transmitted low-rate data. The DSOC experiment is the agency's first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system. DSOC is a system that consists of this flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver. New advanced technologies have been implemented in each of these elements. The transceiver will "piggyback" on NASA's Psyche spacecraft when it launches in August 2022 to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name. The DSOC technology demonstration will begin shortly after launch and continue as the spacecraft travels from Earth to its gravity-assist flyby of Mars. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24570

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Pictured from Left to Right: James Demers, Adam Wroblewski, Shaun McKeehan, Kurt Blankenship. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

Pilatus PC-12 Aircraft Being Prepped for Takeoff on June 12, 2024. A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.

Adam Wroblewski p A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. Adam Wroblewski in the PC-12 over Lake Erie on June 13, 2024 sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

NASA research Dr. Donald Frazier uses a blue laser shining through a quartz window into a special mix of chemicals to generate a polymer film on the inside quartz surface. As the chemicals respond to the laser light, they adhere to the glass surface, forming opticl films. Dr. Frazier and Dr. Mark S. Paley developed the process in the Space Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Working aboard the Space Shuttle, a science team led by Dr. Frazier formed thin-films potentially useful in optical computers with fewer impurities than those formed on Earth. Patterns of these films can be traced onto the quartz surface. In the optical computers on the future, these films could replace electronic circuits and wires, making the systems more efficient and cost-effective, as well as lighter and more compact. Photo credit: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California – part of the agency's Deep Space Network – is a 34-meter (112-foot) experimental antenna that has been retrofitted with an optical terminal (the boxy instrument below the center of the antenna's dish). Since November 2023, DSS-13 has been tracking the downlink laser of the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment that is aboard NASA's Psyche mission, which launched on Oct. 13, 2023. In a first, the antenna also synchronously received radio-frequency signals from the spacecraft as it travels through deep space on its way to investigate the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The laser signal collected by the camera is then transmitted through optical fiber that feeds into a cryogenically cooled semiconducting nanowire single photon detector. Designed and built by JPL's Microdevices Laboratory, the detector is identical to the one used at Caltech's Palomar Observatory, in San Diego County, California, that acts as DSOC's downlink ground station. Goldstone is one of three complexes that comprise NASA's Deep Space Network, which provides radio communications for all of the agency's interplanetary spacecraft and is also utilized for radio astronomy and radar observations of the solar system and the universe. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the DSN for the agency. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26148

STS042-05-006 (22-30 Jan 1992) --- Astronaut Norman E. Thagard, payload commander, performs the Fluids Experiment System (FES) in the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) science module. The FES is a NASA-developed facility that produces optical images of fluid flows during the processing of materials in space. The system's sophisticated optics consist of a laser to make holograms of samples and a video camera to record images of flows in and around samples. Thagard was joined by six fellow crewmembers for eight days of scientific research aboard Discovery in Earth-orbit. Most of their on-duty time was spent in this IML-1 science module, positioned in the cargo bay and attached via a tunnel to Discovery's airlock.

This timelapse video shows the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Facility near Wrightwood, California, transmitting its 3-kilowatt laser beacon to the agency's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment aboard NASA's Psyche mission on June 2, 2025; the spacecraft was about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth at the time. Managed by JPL, DSOC was designed to demonstrate that data encoded in laser photons could be reliably transmitted, received, and then decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth out to Mars distances. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency's Psyche mission in 2023, the demonstration completed its 65th and final "pass" on Sept. 2, 2025, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal from 218 million miles (350 million kilometers) away. Animation available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26663

Shown here is an identical copy of the Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC, superconducting nanowire single-photon detector that is coupled to the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope located at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. Built by the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the detector is designed to receive near-infrared laser signals from the DSOC flight transceiver traveling with NASA's Psyche mission in deep space as a part of the technology demonstration. DSOC will test key technologies that could enable high-bandwidth optical, or laser, communications from Mars distances. Bolted to the side of the spacecraft and operating for the first two years of Psyche's journey to the asteroid of the same name, the DSOC flight laser transceiver will transmit high-rate data to Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, which houses the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope. The downlink detector converts optical signals to electrical signals, which can be processed and decoded. The detector is designed to be both sensitive enough to detect single photons (quantum particles of light) and able to detect many photons arriving all at once. At its farthest point during the technology demonstration's operations period, the transceiver will be up to 240 million miles (390 million kilometers) away, meaning that by the time its weak laser pulses arrive at Earth, the detector will need to efficiently detect a trickle of single photons. But when the spacecraft is closer to Earth and the flight transceiver is delivering its highest bit rate to Palomar, the detector is capable of detecting very high numbers of photons without becoming overwhelmed. Because data is encoded in the timing of the laser pulses, the detector must also be able to determine the time of a photon's arrival with a precision of 100 picoseconds (one picosecond is one trillionth of a second). To sense single photons, the detector must be in a superconducting state (when electrical current flows with zero resistance), so it is cryogenically cooled to less than minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1 Kelvin), which is close to absolute zero, or the lowest temperature possible. A photon absorbed in the detector disrupts its superconducting state, creating a measurable electrical pulse as current leaves the detector. DSOC is the latest in a series of optical communication technology demonstrations funded by NASA's Technology Demonstrations Missions (TDM) program and the agency's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages DSOC for TDM within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and SCaN within the agency's Space Operations Mission Directorate. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26141

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

ISS019-E-013244 (2 May 2009) --- Astronaut Michael Barratt, Expedition 19/20 flight engineer, uses a computer during a session with the Binodal Colloidal Aggregation Test?4 (BCAT-4) in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. This experiment studies the long-term behavior of colloids ? fine particles suspended in a fluid in a microgravity environment, where the effects of sedimentation and convention are removed. Results from this study may lead to new colloid materials with applications in the communications and computer industries for switches, displays and optical devices with properties that could rival those of lasers.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Laurie Leshin, left, speaks with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson prior to the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study it’s composition. The spacecraft also carries the agency's Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the Moon. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

ISS019-E-013241 (2 May 2009) --- Astronaut Michael Barratt, Expedition 19/20 flight engineer, prepares to photograph Binodal Colloidal Aggregation Test?4 (BCAT-4) experiment samples in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. This experiment studies the long-term behavior of colloids ? fine particles suspended in a fluid in a microgravity environment, where the effects of sedimentation and convention are removed. Results from this study may lead to new colloid materials with applications in the communications and computer industries for switches, displays and optical devices with properties that could rival those of lasers.

ISS019-E-013240 (2 May 2009) --- Astronaut Michael Barratt, Expedition 19/20 flight engineer, conducts a session with the Binodal Colloidal Aggregation Test?4 (BCAT-4) in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. This experiment studies the long-term behavior of colloids ? fine particles suspended in a fluid in a microgravity environment, where the effects of sedimentation and convention are removed. Results from this study may lead to new colloid materials with applications in the communications and computer industries for switches, displays and optical devices with properties that could rival those of lasers.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on June 26, 2023, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers and technicians from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have begun final assembly, test, and launch operations on Psyche, with assembly of the spacecraft all but complete except for the installation of the solar arrays and the imagers. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft. A final suite of tests will be run on the vehicle, after which it will be fueled and then mated onto a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket just prior to launch, targeted for October 2023.

Aerial Photograph of Glenn Research Center With Downtown Cleveland in the Distance taken from the PC-12 on June 13, 2024. A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

Adam Wroblewski and Shaun McKeehan Working In PC-12 Aircraft during in flight testing on June 13, 2024. A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Pictured here on June 13, 2024 from Left to Right: Kurt Blakenship, Adam Wroblewski, Shaun McKeehan. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

Kurt Blankenship and James Demers Fly PC-12 Aircraft During Testing on June 13, 2024. A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

View of the Glenn Research Center Hangar from the Cleveland Hopkins Airport Runway during a testing flight on June 13, 2024. A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

At Glenn Research Center, the PC-12 is Prepped for a flight and ready to takeoff on June 12, 2024. A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications. The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions. Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland. From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data. Photo Credit: (NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna)

Through Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Education Department, over 400 MSFC employees have volunteered to support educational program during regular work hours. Project LASER (Learning About Science, Engineering, and Research) provides support for mentor/tutor requests, education tours, classroom presentations, and curriculum development. This program is available to teachers and students living within commuting distance of the NASA/MSFC in Huntsville, Alabama (approximately 50-miles radius). This image depicts students viewing their reflections in an x-ray mirror with Marshall optic engineer Vince Huegele at the Discovery Laboratory, which is an onsite MSFC laboratory facility that provides hands-on educational workshop sessions for teachers and students learning activities.

NASA Headquarters Planetary Science Division director Lori Glaze, left, hugs Jet Propulsion Laboratory director Laurie Leshin as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, right, and Associate Administrator, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Nicola Fox watch for the return of the boosters after the launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard from Launch Complex 39A, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft will travel to a metal-rich asteroid by the same name orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter to study it’s composition. The spacecraft also carries the agency's Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which will test laser communications beyond the Moon. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

The science briefing ahead of launch for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, a mission to a unique metal-rich asteroid. Psyche will travel nearly six years and about 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) – to an asteroid of the same name, which is orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe Psyche could be part of the core of a planetesimal, likely made of iron-nickel metal. The ore will not be mined but studied from orbit in hopes of giving researchers a better idea of what may make up Earth’s core. The Psyche spacecraft also will host a pioneering technology demonstration: NASA’s DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) experiment. This laser communications system will operate for the first two years of Psyche’s journey. Launch is targeted for 10:16 a.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 12, from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. The participants include Lori Glaze, director, Planetary Sciences Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington; Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator of Psyche, Arizona State University; Ben Weiss, deputy principal investigator and magnetometer lead, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David Oh, chief engineer for operations, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Abi Biswas, project technologist for DSOC, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

How do you measure a cloud? Tim Bencic does it with lasers. The NASA Glenn engineer invented a tomography system for our Propulsion Systems Lab to help understand the dangers of ice crystal icing on airplanes. Bencic’s system, affectionally called “Tim-ography” is like a CAT Scan. The laser light within its circular geometry bounces off the surface of ice particles in the cloud and fiber optic detectors map out its properties. This tool is helping NASA’s researchers make aircraft safer in challenging weather conditions.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft was powered on and connected to ground support equipment, enabling engineers and technicians to prepare it for launch in 2023. Teams working at Astrotech and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California continue to monitor the health of its systems. After a one-year delay to complete critical testing, the Psyche project is targeting an October 2023 launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration, testing high-data-rate laser communications, is integrated into Psyche and will travel with it when it launches to its target, a metal-rich asteroid, also named Psyche, that lies in the main asteroid belt. The silver-colored cylinder shown in the photo is the sunshade for DSOC, and the gold blanketing is the aperture cover for the DSOC payload. The spacecraft's target may be the partial core of a planetesimal, a building block of rocky planets in our solar system. Researchers will study Psyche using a suite of instruments including multispectral cameras, a Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) and a magnetometer. The GRNS and magnetometer sensors are visible in the photo as the tips of the two black protrusions at the far end of the spacecraft. Also visible is the large, disc-shaped high-gain antenna, which will enable the spacecraft to communicate with Earth. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25664

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is captured here on August 18, 2021, in a clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California – in the midst of system integration and test. The mission's launch period opens August 1, 2022. The nitrogen tanks are visible in the center of the spacecraft chassis, encased in red protective "remove before flight" covers. Mounted on the right is the strut tower, which will host the sensors for two of the science instruments – the magnetometer and the Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS). By spring of 2022, the fully assembled Psyche spacecraft will ship from JPL to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for launch. In early 2026, the spacecraft will arrive at its target, an asteroid of the same name in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe asteroid Psyche, which is about 140 miles (226 kilometers) wide, is made largely of iron and nickel and could be the core of an early planet. The spacecraft will spend 21 months orbiting the asteroid and gathering science data. Besides the magnetometer and the GRNS, Psyche will carry a multispectral imager. The mission also will test a sophisticated new laser communications technology, recently completed by JPL, called Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC). The technology demonstration will focus on using lasers to enhance communications speeds and prepare for data-intensive transmissions, which could potentially include livestream videos for future missions. Arizona State University leads the mission. JPL is responsible for the mission's overall management, system engineering, integration and testing, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies is providing a high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part of NASA's Discovery Program. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24787

The IML-1 mission was the first in a series of Shuttle flights dedicated to fundamental materials and life sciences research with the international partners. The participating space agencies included: NASA, the 14-nation European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), The French National Center of Space Studies (CNES), the German Space Agency and the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DAR/DLR), and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). Dedicated to the study of life and materials sciences in microgravity, the IML missions explored how life forms adapt to weightlessness and investigated how materials behave when processed in space. Both life and materials sciences benefited from the extended periods of microgravity available inside the Spacelab science module in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. This photograph shows Astronaut Norman Thagard performing the fluid experiment at the Fluid Experiment System (FES) facility inside the laboratory module. The FES facility had sophisticated optical systems for imaging fluid flows during materials processing, such as experiments to grow crystals from solution and solidify metal-modeling salts. A special laser diagnostic technique recorded the experiments, holograms were made for post-flight analysis, and video was used to view the samples in space and on the ground. Managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the IML-1 mission was launched on January 22, 1992 aboard the Shuttle Orbiter Discovery (STS-42).