Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Lifts Off! - Nasa daily picture for December 07 (2021)

NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD, launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program 3 mission from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

LCRD will showcase the unique capabilities of optical communications. The mission’s Space Test Program Satellite-6 spacecraft also hosts the NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph (UVSC) Pathfinder. 

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Source: www.nasa.gov