In a first, NASA streams 4K video footage from aircraft to ISS and back

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that a team at its Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station (ISS) and back for the first time using optical (or laser) communications.

The team carried out the experiment as part of a series of tests on new technology. The scientists hope that this technology could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions.

NASA has sent data to and from orbit via radio waves in the past also. Notably, laser communications can transfer 10–100 times more data more quickly by using infrared light compared to radio frequency systems.

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For the test, the scientists worked with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA's Small Business Innovation Research programme. They temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft.

They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland and it was then sent over an Earth-based network to White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The scientists at NASA's facility in New Mexico used infrared light signals to send the data. The space agency stated that the signals travelled 22,000 miles away from Earth to its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), which is an orbiting experimental platform.

The signal was then relayed by the LCRD to the ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory. In the end, ILLUMA-T sent the data back to Earth.

Dr Daniel Raible, who is a principal investigator for the HDTN project at Glenn, said, "These experiments are a tremendous accomplishment. 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."

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Missy Elliott's song sent into deep space

For the first time, NASA recently transmitted the lyrics of popular Missy Elliot's song "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" to Venus, which is about 158 million miles (254 million kilometres) away. The lyrics were beamed using DSN (Deep Space Network).

The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California sent the transmission at 10:05 am PDT on July 12.

In 2008, NASA beamed The Beatles song "Across the Universe" into space. Elliott's 1997 debut single became the first hip-hop song sent to deep space.

(With inputs from agencies)