Video: NASA's Laser Communications Relay demonstration gears up for launch

NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) is gearing up for motorboat this fall, nary earlier than Nov. 22. The payload arrived successful Florida successful May, afloat integrated into its big spacecraft and acceptable for its last investigating earlier being lofted into space.

LCRD volition leverage the powerfulness of infrared airy to nonstop and person accusation encoded into invisible laser beams from 1 determination to the next. Once successful orbit, LCRD volition show the benefits of utilizing infrared lasers to pass accusation from space. These benefits see accrued information successful a azygous downlink, arsenic good arsenic reduced size, weight, and power requirements for a communications strategy connected a spacecraft.

As portion of the last investigating campaign, respective LCRD squad members integrated the past pieces of hardware, completed last inspections, and conducted motorboat integration systems tests astatine the Astrotech Space Operations installation successful Titusville, Florida. Completed successful May, these were the past acceptable of Earth-based tests for the payload, ensuring its readiness for launch. Soon, the big spacecraft volition beryllium fueled with propellant and prepared for encapsulation and mating with an Atlas V rocket.

Once the spacecraft is thrusted into abstraction and reaches its destination successful geosynchronous orbit—22,000 miles supra Earth's surface—LCRD volition go NASA's archetypal two-way laser communications relay.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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