NASA's Psyche mission sends signal from Mars orbit

NASA's Psyche mission has sent signal from Mars orbit, marking a critical milestone of the mission, NASA said on Thursday.

The Psyche spacecraft, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in October last year, is the first-ever U.S. mission to study a metal-rich asteroid in the far reaches of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Almost a year since launch, NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications experiment sent a laser signal from Earth to Psyche spacecraft about 460 million kilometers away, according to NASA.

Soon after reaching that milestone on July 29, the technology demonstration concluded the first phase of its operations since launching aboard Psyche.

The milestone is a proof that human could one day relay data to and from Mars with lasers, according to NASA.

By transporting data at rates up to 100 times higher than radio frequencies, lasers can enable the transmission of complex scientific information as well as high-definition imagery and video, which are needed to support humanity's next giant leap when astronauts travel to Mars and beyond, said NASA.

Psyche spacecraft remains healthy and stable, using ion propulsion to accelerate toward a metal-rich asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, according to NASA.