Technicians uncover and check the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, experiment. The optical technology demonstration experiment is slated to fly aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann
July 11, 2013 – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians uncover and check the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, experiment in a test cell at a Space Station Processing Facility offline laboratory. The optical technology demonstration experiment arrived from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA will use the International Space Station to test OPALS’ technology, which could dramatically improve spacecraft communications, enhance commercial missions and strengthen transmission of scientific data.
Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann