INSIGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM OPERATING A GEOSTATIONARY LASER COMMUNICATION RELAY MISSION: OPERATIONAL LESSONS FROM NASA’S LASER COMMUNICATIONS RELAY DEMONSTRATION (LCRD) AND ASSOCIATED OPTICAL GROUND STATIONS (OGSs)

The NASA Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) has operated on orbit for the last twoyears. The LCRD Mission consists of a geostationary payload and two optical ground stations.This technology demonstration mission is NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end optical communications relay.LCRD has performed an extensive experiment campaign to analyze laser communication performance forextended operations. This paper discusses various lessons learned while operating the optical relaymission from early commissioning through two years of operation. Before launch, engineers and operatorsperformed analyses to generate operational procedures based on expected LCRD performance. However,only operation on orbit can supply actual performance data. Additional topics covered in this paper includepre-launch and commissioning testing, ephemeris generation and cadence, environmental configurations,and accommodation concerns.The addition of Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem andAmplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) to the optical network supplemented the LCRD team’s operationalexperiences and enabled them to garner new lessons learned.The authors of this paper include day-to-day flight leads who consulted with on-console operators,engineers, and subject matter experts analyzing data and experiment results to gather the lessons learneddescribed in this paper.LCRD is a joint project involving NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the California Institute ofTechnology Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory(MIT LL).