NASA is one step closer on its transition to using commercially owned and operated satellite communications services to provide future near-Earth space missions with increased service coverage, availability, and accelerated science and data delivery. As of Friday, Nov. 8, the agency’s legacy TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, as part of the Near Space … Read more
NASA’s LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal), a ground station made of modified commercial hardware, transmitted its first laser communications uplink to the TBIRD (TeraByte Infrared Delivery), a tissue box-sized payload formerly in low Earth orbit. During the first live sky test, NASA’s LCOT produced enough uplink intensity for the TBIRD payload to identify the laser beacon, … Read more
The Deep Space Optical Communications tech demo has completed several key milestones, culminating in sending a signal to Mars’ farthest distance from Earth. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration broke yet another record for laser communications this summer by sending a laser signal from Earth to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles (460 … Read more
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the opportunity to vote in general elections through absentee ballots or early voting in coordination with the county clerk’s office where they live. So, how is voting from space possible? Through NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program. Similar to most data transmitted between the space station … Read more
NASA has selected Intuitive Machines of Houston and Aalyria Technologies Inc. of Livermore, California, to perform capability studies with the goal of advancing space communications and exploration technologies. These studies will allow NASA to gain insights into industry capabilities and innovations to facilitate NASA partnerships with commercial communications and navigation providers. The awards, under the … Read more
NASA’s TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft — the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3) — have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD payload spent the past two years breaking world records for the fastest satellite downlink from space using laser communications. NASA’s PTD series leverages a common commercial spacecraft to provide a robust … Read more
NASA has awarded a contract to Intuitive Machines, LLC of Houston, to support the agency’s lunar relay systems as part of the Near Space Network, operated by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This Subcategory 2.2 GEO to Cislunar Relay Services is a new firm-fixed-price, multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity task order contract. The … Read more
For over a decade, NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) Internship Project alumni have played important roles in extending the agency’s long-term vision for exploration. For National Intern Day on Thursday, July 25, previous program interns reflect on their journeys to and through NASA and offer advice for current and future interns. Every summer interns … Read more
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 … Read more
New 66-foot-wide antenna dishes will be built, online, and operational in time to provide near-continuous communications services to Artemis astronauts at the Moon later this decade. Called LEGS, short for Lunar Exploration Ground Sites, the antennas represent critical infrastructure for NASA’s vision of supporting a sustained human presence at the Moon. The first three of … Read more