The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) is a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

mission that will test

laser communication in space Laser communication in space is the use of free-space optical communication in outer space. Communication may be fully in space (an inter-satellite laser link) or in a ground-to-satellite or satellite-to-ground application. The main advantage o ...

for extremely long distances, between

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

and

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

. After being integrated into STPSat-6, a part of STP-3, LCRD launched on 7 December 2021 on an

Atlas V Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...

551. Results from LCRD's first year of experiments in orbit have been shared online and through a

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

publication.

Overview

The LCRD mission was selected for development in 2011, with a launch on board a commercial satellite scheduled for 2019. The technology demonstration payload will be positioned above the equator, a prime location for line-of-sight to other orbiting satellites and ground stations. Space laser communications technology has the potential to provide 10 to 100 times higher data rates than traditional radio frequency systems for the same mass and power. Alternatively, numerous NASA studies have shown that a laser communications system will use less mass and power than a radio frequency system for the same data rate. The LCRD mission is managed by NASA's

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

(GSFC) and in partnership with NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

. In May 2018, the General Accounting Office (GAO) says there have been delays, funding cuts, and cost overruns but it should be ready to launch by November 2019, as a payload on a U.S. Air Force

Space Test Program The Space Test Program (STP) is the primary provider of spaceflight for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Outline of space science, space science and technology community. STP is managed by a group within the Advanced Systems and De ...

mission STP-3, on an Atlas V 551. By April 2020, after further delays and cost overruns, it was expected to launch in January 2021, as a payload on a U.S. Air Force

satellite ( STPSat 6, part of STP-3 launch). STPSat-6 is destined for an orbit slightly above the geostationary orbit.

Results

Results from LCRD's first year of experiments in orbit have been shared online and through a

publication.

Precursor mission

The concept was first tested in outer space aboard the

Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE; ) was a NASA lunar exploration and technology demonstration mission. It was launched on a Minotaur V rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on September 7, 2013. During its seve ...

(LADEE) orbiter in 2013. LADEE's ''Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration'' (LLCD)

pulsed laser Pulsed operation of lasers refers to any laser not classified as continuous wave, so that the optical power appears in pulses of some duration at some repetition rate. This encompasses a wide range of technologies addressing a number of different ...

system conducted a successful test on 18 October 2013, transmitting data between the spacecraft and its ground station on Earth at a distance of . This test set a

downlink In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...

record of 622

megabits per second In telecommunications, data transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mul ...

from spacecraft to ground, and an "error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps" from ground station to spacecraft.

Project purpose

The goal of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration project is to prove the utility of bidirectional optical communications relay services between geosynchronous orbit and Earth. The project supports the advanced communications, navigation, and avionics exploration key focus areas. This effort will prove optical communications technology in an operational setting, providing data rates up to 100 times faster than today's radio frequency-based communication systems. The demonstration will measure and characterize the system performance over a variety of conditions, develop operational procedures, assess applicability for future missions, and provide an on-orbit capability for test and demonstration of standards for optical relay communications. This capability, if successfully demonstrated, could be quickly infused into NASA missions, other Federal agencies, and U.S. satellite manufacturers and operators given the rising demand for bandwidth. Laser Communications Relay Demonstration will fly as a hosted payload with the U.S. Air Force Space Test Program (STPSat-6). Upon a successful flight demonstration, NASA will provide the communications industry with access to the integrated system to test these new capabilities for commercial applications.

ILLUMA-T

One of LCRD's first operational users will be the

Integrated LCRD Low-Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration * Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technolog ...

(ILLUMA-T), a payload hosted on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. The terminal will receive high-resolution science data from experiments and instruments onboard the space station and then transfer this data to LCRD, which will then transmit it to a ground station. After the data arrives on Earth, it will be delivered to mission operation centers and mission scientists. The ILLUMA-T payload was sent to the ISS on SpaceX CRS-29 on 10 November 2023. The terminal achieved first light, on 5 December, 2023.

Project parameters

LCRD will conduct a minimum two-year flight demonstration to advance optical communications technology toward infusion into Near Earth operational systems while growing the capabilities of industry sources. Objectives include: * Demonstrating bidirectional optical communications between geosynchronous Earth orbit and Earth; * Measuring and characterizing the system performance over a variety of conditions; * Developing operational procedures and assessing applicability for future missions; and * Providing an on-orbit capability for test and demonstration of standards for optical relay communications.

Ground stations

LCRD will use two

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fr ...

s, Optical Ground Station (OGS)-1 and -2, at Table Mountain, California, and

Haleakalā Haleakalā (; Hawaiian: ), or the East Maui Volcano, is a massive, active shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Island of Maui. The western 25% of the island is formed by another volcano, Mauna Kahalawai, als ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...