NASA seems to have succumbed, like many netizens, to cat videos. After making such a video, the American space agency sent it on a small orbit of space – about 30 million kilometers, AFP and Agerpres reported on Tuesday.

NASA catPhoto: Handout / AFP / Profimedia

The operation was part of a very serious test of a new cutting-edge technology: a laser communication system that is promising for future space exploration.

On Dec. 11, NASA transmitted video streaming from deep space for the first time using this system, the US agency announced on Monday.

The star of this 15-second video is a white and orange cat named Teters, who is owned by a member of staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). A cat on the sofa is playing, trying to catch a bright dot projected by… a laser.

It took just 101 seconds for the high-definition video to reach Earth after being sent by an instrument on NASA’s Psyche probe, which was about 30 million kilometers away at the time. The transmission speed was 267 megabits per second, which is higher than that of a classic Internet connection.

The signal was received by the Palomar Observatory in California, which transmitted it directly to the JPL headquarters in the south of the same American state, where the video was instantly played back.

Cat Taters is not the first feline “pioneer” of NASA.

“After receiving the video at Palomar, it was sent to JPL over the Internet, and that connection was slower than the signal from deep space,” said Ryan Rogalin, who is involved in the project at NASA. Other videos have also previously been transmitted from space using this laser technology, but from much shorter distances.

Space missions involve the transmission of an ever-increasing amount of data as technology advances. In connection with preparations for sending manned missions to Mars, NASA is trying to use laser communication systems instead of classic radio communication.

“Increasing our capabilities is critical to achieving our future science and research goals,” Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, said in a statement.

The US space agency said it was following tradition – in 1928, an image of the cartoon character Felix the Cat was used for a television test.