Tag: DSOC

Observatory dome under a starry night sky with silhouetted trees, related to NASA's Deep Space Communications Demo

September 18, 2025 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Deep Space Communications Demo Exceeds Project Expectations

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology successfully showed that data encoded in lasers could be reliably transmitted, received, and decoded after traveling millions of miles from...

Optical ground station equipment with "No Step" signs, set against a clear sky with the moon visible

July 15, 2025 / ESA

Europe’s first deep-space optical communication link

The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully established a transmission-reception optical link with NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment onboard its Psyche mission, located...

Technicians in clean suits work on the Psyche spacecraft in a lab with an American flag on the wall

April 25, 2024 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Optical Comms Demo Transmits Data Over 140 Million Miles

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment also interfaced with the Psyche spacecraft’s communication system for the first time, transmitting engineering data to Earth. Riding aboard...

NASA's experimental antenna in a desert landscape, capable of receiving radio and optical signals for deep space missions

February 8, 2024 / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser

Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC, aboard NASA’s Psyche mission. An experimental...

NASA's Psyche spacecraft in a lab, covered in reflective material, with inset showing laser communication equipment

August 8, 2023 / NASA

NASA’s Deep Space Communications to Get a Laser Boost

The agency is testing technologies in space and on the ground that could increase bandwidth to transmit more complex science data and even stream video from Mars. Set to launch this fall, NASA’s...