For the first time, NASA sends Ultra HD video from deep space to Earth using laser

The American space agency NASA, as part of testing data streaming technologies, has sent Ultra HD video footage from deep space to Earth for the first time.

In a 15-second clip, a ginger cat named Teeters, living with one of the employees, is seen playing with a laser pointer.

The video was pre-loaded onto the spacecraft "Psyche," launched by the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida on October 13.

On December 11, the cat video signal was transmitted to Earth using a laser from a distance of almost 19 million miles (approximately 30 million kilometers) — 80 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

The video transmission took 101 seconds. The signal was received by the Hale Telescope in California, and each frame was then sent to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA's research center, where the video was played in real-time.

Ryan Rogalin, the project leader for receiving electronics at JPL, noted that despite the millions of miles of distance, the signal transmission from deep space was faster than from the reception center at JPL using the internet.

Streaming video transmission via laser at NASA is considered a significant milestone that will pave the way for future human missions beyond low Earth orbit.

The space agency emphasized that this test will lead to high-speed communication to support the next giant leap: sending humans to Mars.