A laser signal has reached earth from space, traveling a distance of 140 miles, a development that could completely change the history of space missions in the future.

The laser beams from Space to Earth were sent by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft which is, at this stage, approximately 1.5 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

Psyche carries a traditional radio frequency transmitter, the mission’s primary means of staying in contact with Earth.

The mission’s communications are through NASA’s Deep Space Network, a collection of large radio receivers scattered around the world that the agency uses to stay in touch while in deep space.

After interfacing with Psyche’s RF transmitter, the laser communications demo sent the engineering data copy to Earth.

This achievement provides a first glimpse of how spacecraft could use optical communications in the future, enabling communications of complex scientific information at higher data rates as well as high-definition images and video.

“We disconnected about 10 minutes of duplicate spacecraft data during a pass on April 8said Meera Srinivasan, project operations manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

“Until then, we were sending test and diagnostic data to our downlinks from Psyche. This represents a major milestone for the project, showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio-frequency communication system“, he added.