Since the advent of the Space Age, we've always relied on radio frequency communications to "chat" with both astronauts and spacecraft in orbit and beyond. But now, NASA is leveling up its communications system with one of the coolest, most space-y things ever: lasers.
As part of NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) program, researchers have successfully tested laser communications by beaming photos and videos of employees' beloved pets into space. And not just cats and dogs — birds, chickens, cows, snakes and pigs, too, among other species. More specifically, the images and videos were sent from Earth to NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) in a geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles (35,405 kilometers) away, then from LCRD to the Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) on the International Space Station (ISS).
