Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC)
NASA’s DSOC experiment is the agency’s first demonstration of optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system. DSOC is a system that consists of a flight laser transceiver, a ground laser transmitter, and a ground laser receiver. New advanced technologies have been implemented in each of these elements.
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/main-dsoc-psyche-photo-april-2022.jpg?w=1536)
More Deep Space Optical Communications News
Contact
To learn more, please reach out to Jimi Russell at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. at (216) 704-2412 or via email.
Email Jimi Russell about Contact![NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/psyche_spacecraft_processing.jpg?w=1041)
Psyche Mission
Read the Psyche Blog
NASA’s Psyche mission, which will explore a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, launched October 13, 2023.
Psyche launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A. NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, intended to test high-data-rate laser communications, remains integrated into the spacecraft.
Learn More about Read the Psyche Blog![The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration's flight laser transceiver is shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in April 2021, before being installed inside its box-like enclosure that was later integrated with NASA's Psyche spacecraft.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/jpegpia24569.width-1600.jpg?w=1536)
Psyche Images
See images of the Psyche spacecraft and Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC).
View Images about Psyche Images![](https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/KSC-20220503-PH-ILW01_0001/KSC-20220503-PH-ILW01_0001~large.jpg?w=1920&h=1194&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint)