NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications experiment on Tuesday achieved “first light” after a flight laser transceiver aboard the agency’s Psyche spacecraft transmitted and received near-infrared signals from Earth.

The DSOC experiment sent a near-infrared laser signal encoded with test data from a distance of nearly 10 million miles to a telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in California, NASA said Thursday.

The space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California reportedly oversees the DSOC experiment and the Psyche spacecraft.

The experiment is part of the Psyche mission that launched in October to study the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and seeks to demonstrate data transmission rates 10 to 100 times greater than today’s radio frequency tools aboard spacecraft.

“Achieving first light is one of many critical DSOC milestones in the coming months, paving the way toward higher-data-rate communications capable of sending scientific information, high-definition imagery, and streaming video in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars,” said Trudy Kortes, director of Technology Demonstrations at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The transceiver aboard Psyche also sent test data through the downlink and uplink lasers as part of the experiment.

The DSOC team will now further develop the systems responsible for controlling the pointing of the transceiver’s downlink laser on the transceiver in order to start the demonstration of maintaining high-bandwidth data transmission between the transceiver and Palomar Observatory.

Space Training and Readiness Command has provided the U.S. Space Force with a Space Doctrine Publication developed to present best practices and authoritative guidance regarding space domain awareness, or SDA.

The first operational level doctrine publication outlines how the Space Force could build and maintain SDA to ensure the U.S. has the freedom to operate in, from and to space, Space Operations Command said Thursday.

SDP 3-100, Space Domain Awareness, also underscores how important SDA is for all domain operations. Other highlights include characterization of the space environment, identification of roles and responsibilities of SDA-associated organizations and discussions about space capabilities and the orbital, terrestrial and link segments of space systems.

“Effective SDA is foundational for space forces to conduct prompt and sustained operations that fulfill the cornerstone responsibilities of the Space Force, preserving freedom of action in the space domain, enabling joint lethality and effectiveness, and providing independent options capable of achieving national objectives,” said Space Force Brig. Gen. Timothy Sejba, commander of STARCOM. “Space Force commanders and their staffs rely on timely and actionable SDA to satisfy these responsibilities.”