NASA Uses CACI-Built Optical Tech to Send Data From Space to Ground; John Mengucci Quoted

NASA transmitted data from space to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California using a CACI International-built optical communications terminal on the Psyche spacecraft that was deployed as part of the Deep Space Optical Communications experiment.

CACI said Thursday the space agency sent the space-based data to JPL at a distance of more than 200 kilometers and intends to continue using the company’s optical technology for the DSOC program.

“With this latest accomplishment, we have achieved another ‘first for mankind’ milestone with our technology,” said John Mengucci, president and CEO of CACI. 

Mengucci, a 2024 Wash100 awardee, noted that the company has demonstrated space-to-ground and space-to-space communications for proliferated low Earth orbit applications. 

According to the CACI chief executive, the company has more than 25 OCTs in LEO for the U.S. government.

In early 2021, the company handed over to NASA’s JPL a laser communications transmitter designed to enable the Psyche spacecraft to send data from an asteroid belt as part of the DSOC initiative.