NASA’s Deep Space Communications demo exceeds project expectations

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology has successfully shown that data encoded in lasers can be reliably transmitted, received, and decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth at distances comparable to Mars. Nearly two years after launching aboard the agency’s Psyche mission in 2023, the technology demonstration recently completed its 65th and final pass, sending a laser signal to Psyche and receiving the return signal from 218 million miles away.