Channel: NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Category: Science & Technology

Tags: cape canaveral space force stationkennedy countdownlaunch services programspacex falcon 9 rocketnasalaunch complex 41ixpeimaging x-ray polarimetry explorerkennedy space centerlaser communications relay demonstrationlcrdspace test program 3launch complex 39au.s. space forcestp-3

Description: NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD, launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Dec. 7, at 5:19 a.m. Eastern Time, as part of the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program 3 mission. LCRD, along with another NASA payload, the Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph Pathfinder, were hosted on the Space Test Program Satellite-6 spacecraft. LCRD will be NASA’s first end-to-end laser relay system and will provide significant benefits for missions, including bandwidth increases of 10 to 100 times more than radio systems. Just two days later, NASA’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A during the early morning hours on Dec. 9. IXPE is the agency’s first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, such as black holes and neutron stars. IXPE’s launch was managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy.