4K video footage from spacecraft to International Space Station streamed by NASA

NASA’s Glenn Research Center team in Cleveland has accomplished a milestone of streaming 4K video footage from spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), setting a great space communication system using laser technology.

The flight was a NASA initiative to test data sharing from space and high-quality video sharing for future human missions. NASA is planning several space missions that require good navigation and communication and embracing laser communication is proving to be effective for information sharing between Earth and space.

This communication test was done to prepare for the upcoming moon mission the Artemis mission during which astronauts can do the live coverage. Earlier NASA used radio to establish communication and send information to the Earth, but this new technology of laser communication uses infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 more data and even faster compared to the radio frequency communication system.

Dr. Daniel Raible, principal investigator for the HDTN project at Glenn, said, “These experiments are a tremendous accomplishment,” He further added, “We can now build upon the success of streaming 4K HD videos to and from the space station to provide future capabilities, like HD videoconferencing, for our Artemis astronauts, which will be important for crew health and activity coordination.”