Weekly - NASA’s new light-speed communication experiment tested successfully and more

Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy

NASA’s new light-speed communication experiment tested successfully

NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment that was recently launched aboard the Psyche spacecraft was successfully tested recently. The DSOC is an experiment designed to test laser communications in space. Laser communication is a form of communication using lasers instead of radio waves in outer space. Since lasers are essentially light beams, they travel at the speed of light. They also have a higher bandwidth compared to radio waves. This means that laser communications can transfer larger amounts of data in a much shorter time period. The experiment was conducted last week when a signal was transmitted from the spacecraft back to the Earth for the first time. This shows that laser communications could be a new revolution.

China launches new ocean observation satellite

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced the successful launch of its new Haiyang ocean observation satellite recently. The new satellite will provide high-quality weather and ocean observations throughout its 8-year-long mission life.

SpaceX starship explodes minutes after launch

Last week SpaceX’s second test flight of the Starship mega-rocket resulted in the explosion of the unmanned rocket 8 minutes into the flight. SpaceX however claims that the launch was only a partial failure as in the eight minutes it was in flight, it achieved some major milestones.