Illustration of NASAs Laser Communications Relay Demonstration communicating with the International Space Station over laser links. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
NASAs Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) is getting ready for launch this fall, no earlier than November 22. The payload showed up in Florida in May, completely incorporated into its host spacecraft and all set for its final testing before being lofted into space.
LCRD will take advantage of the power of infrared light to send out and receive info encoded into unnoticeable laser beams from one area to the next. When in orbit, LCRD will demonstrate the advantages of utilizing infrared lasers to communicate details from space. These benefits include increased data in a single downlink, in addition to decreased weight, power, and size requirements for a communications system on a spacecraft.
Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) Overview Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
STPSat-6, part of the third Space Test Program (STP-3) mission, will introduce on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. STP is run by the United States Space Forces Space Systems Command.
LCRD is funded through NASAs Technology Demonstration Missions program as part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, and the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters.
As part of the last testing project, numerous LCRD team members integrated the last pieces of hardware, finished final inspections, and conducted launch combination systems tests at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida. Completed in May, these were the last set of Earth-based tests for the payload, guaranteeing its preparedness for launch. Quickly, the host spacecraft will be sustained with propellant and gotten ready for encapsulation and mating with an Atlas V rocket.
When the spacecraft is thrusted into area and reaches its location in geosynchronous orbit– 22,000 miles above Earths surface area– LCRD will end up being NASAs first two-way laser communications relay.
LCRD is a NASA payload aboard the Department of Defenses Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6). STPSat-6, part of the third Space Test Program (STP-3) objective, will introduce on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. STP is run by the United States Space Forces Space Systems Command.
LCRD is led by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners consist of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. LCRD is moneyed through NASAs Technology Demonstration Missions program as part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, and the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters.