KSC-2013-3040

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians uncover and check the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science, or OPALS, experiment in a test cell at a Space Station Processing Facility offline laboratory. The optical technology demonstration experiment arrived from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. NASA will use the International Space Station to test OPALS’ communications technology that could dramatically improve spacecraft communications, enhance commercial missions and strengthen transmission of scientific data. The experiment is slated to fly later this year aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply mission to the space station. The mission is expected to run 90 days after installation on the outside of the station. For more information about OPALS, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/10MMPDO. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann