NASA's Psyche spacecraft just fired a laser 10 million miles away in deep space

Illustration of spacecraft with two solar panels with stars and black space in behind.

A NASA laser just fired successfully in a deep-space test.

On Nov. 14, NASA picked up a laser signal fired from an instrument that launched with the Psyche spacecraft, which is currently more than 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) from Earth and heading toward a mysterious metal asteroid. (The spacecraft is at more than 40 times the average distance of Earth's moon, and still voyaging afar.)