But that means space communication is limited by a most intractable, most inconvenient law: The speed of light is finite. Since the first satellite launched 61 years ago, spacecraft have relied on ...

An experiment aboard NASA’s Psyche mission achieved “first light” by sending and receiving its first deep-space laser communications from far beyond the moon.

ESA, the European Space Agency, successfully established Europe’s first deep-space optical communication link with NASA’s Psyche mission using a high-power fiber laser system from NKT Photonics. This ...

The task requires astronomical precision, and automated guidance systems help aim Psyche's own laser. But should the test work out, the benefits are high: Because laser light has shorter ...

Light speed is the fastest that any object can travel through space. In a perfectly empty vacuum, a photon (a particle of light) can travel 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).