I Am Artemis: Peter Rossoni
Listen to this audio clip from Peter Rossoni, flight manager of the Orion Artemis II optical communications system:
As a child, Peter Rossoni attended the launch of the Apollo missions with his family. In April 2026, he joined NASA’s Artemis II mission, helping to enable communications as astronauts traveled around the Moon.
Rossoni’s journey to NASA began as he followed his parents’ footsteps into science. This foundation eventually led him to laser communications and NASA’s Artemis II test flight.
Today, Rossoni is the flight director of the Orion Artemis II optical communications system at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Throughout Artemis II, he oversaw the first use of laser communications during a crewed deep space mission.
The optical terminal flew aboard the Orion spacecraft alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Through the system, laser communications transmit videos, photos, technical and scientific data, flight procedures and crew communications to Earth from the lunar neighborhood. In total, the terminal transferred more than 450 gigabytes of data to Earth. This is roughly equivalent to 100 high definition movies.
During the approximately 10-day mission, Rossoni joined the mission control team to ensure smooth data flow from Orion’s laser communications terminal to the mission control center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“Communications are an important pillar of exploration. We are venturing into deep space for longer periods of time and we need that vital link back to home base. Laser communications have been proven to work in previous experiments, so the demonstration phase is complete. Artemis II has shown us what it can do operationally.”
Pierre Rossoni
Flight manager for the Orion Artemis II optical communications system
Laser communications systems use invisible infrared light to pack more data into a single transmission. With downlink speeds of up to 260 megabits per second, the optical communications system was capable of transmitting a full 4K movie from the Moon to Earth in about a minute.
“Beyond supporting a crewed mission around the Moon, I am excited to work with an incredible team of talented engineers and visionaries who understand that high-performance communications and networking are a key part of exploration infrastructure.
Merging the existing infrastructure with the next-generation system was no easy feat. While the system’s laser communications path operated alongside traditional radio communications, both were linked to the same networks at the Mission Control Center and aboard Orion. The team developed solutions that would allow systems to work together at the higher data rates that laser communications can offer.
To prepare for liftoff, Rossoni and the flight and ground optical teams supported numerous test activities, including hands-on trials simulating team and facility operations, operational readiness reviews confirming the terminal and ground segment of the system, and ensuring the teams worked together smoothly for the mission. The result was a communications system with up to 100 times greater capacity, improving the connection between astronauts and their support teams, while freeing radio communications systems for sensitive and critical data streams.
“A well-respected Goddard scientist once said, “Communications is the secret sauce of all NASA missions. For Artemis II in particular, with the mission and astronaut safety at stake, it was essential to have robust communications to both enhance exploration success and address all contingencies in the demanding environment of deep space. I felt a deep sense of satisfaction when the Orion Artemis II optical communications system began operating, and it continued to grow as the mission progressed, with more and more objectives achieved.”
Pierre Rossoni
Flight manager for the Orion Artemis II optical communications system
