Getting NASA Data to the Ground with Lasers

NASA launches satellites, rovers, and orbiters to investigate humanity’s place in the Milky Way. When these missions reach their destinations, their scientific instruments capture images, videos, and valuable insights about the cosmos. Communications infrastructure in space and on the ground enables the data collected by these missions to reach Earth. Without ground stations to receive it, however, the extraordinary data captured by these missions would be stuck in space, unable to reach scientists and researchers on Earth.