Kepler launches its first optical relay satellites, activating a laser-linked space network built for real-time data & on-orbit computing. The Laser-Enhanced Mission Communications Navigation and Operational Services (LEMNOS) office at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) manages two NASA optical communication related projects, the Orion EM-2 Optical Communications Terminal (O2O) and the Integrated Laser Communications Relay. Aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, the Lincoln Laboratory–developed terminal will beam data over laser links during the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. The mission lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. With the satellites now deployed, Kepler has begun. In the mid-1990s, operators and major equipment vendors got together to form the MSA organization, which promoted the standardization of optical modules, and optical modules entered the path of rapid development. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbital test of the Apollo command and service module.
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