The Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) operations team at Kennedy Space Center's Space Launch Complex-40 on April 14, 2014, with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying OPALS in the background.

OPALS is a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the International Space Station Program (Johnson Space Center, Houston; Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.) and the Advanced Exploration Systems Program (NASA HQ).

For more information, see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/861.html.