Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
Peter Rossoni served as flight manager for the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System during NASA's Artemis II mission, which sent astronauts around the Moon. He oversaw the first operational use of laser communications on a crewed deep space mission, working alongside traditional radio communication systems. The Artemis II optical terminal on Orion transmitted video, photos, engineering and science data, flight procedures, and crew communications to Earth.
The laser communications system used infrared light to achieve downlink speeds up to 260 megabits per second, allowing transmission of a full-length 4K movie from lunar orbit to Earth in about a minute. Throughout the 10-day mission, the system transferred over 450 gigabytes of data, roughly equivalent to 100 high-definition movies.
The optical communications operated in parallel with traditional radio systems, both connected to the same networks aboard Orion and at the Mission Control Center in Houston. This required developing solutions to integrate the new laser technology with existing infrastructure and operate at higher data rates.
Rossoni emphasized that reliable communication is essential for extended deep space missions, and Artemis II demonstrated that laser communications can operate effectively on crewed lunar missions. The crew included astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.