Artist’s illustration of NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration on-board the U.S. military’s STPSat 6 satellite, showing laser links with a ground station and the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
A $320 million NASA experiment to test high-speed laser communications links between Earth and space is poised for launch Tuesday, tagging along for a ride to geosynchronous orbit on a US Space Force mission aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.