The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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This extraordinary video clip was recorded at ESA's Optical Ground Station (OGS) at about 19:05 UTC on 8 October 2014 as the station illuminated the ISS with a 3.6-Watt 532-nm green laser, used for testing next-gen optical communication technologies. The video clearly shows the ISS bathed in green light as it is tracked by the OGS through the 4-minute pass at an altitude of about 420 km.
The OGS is located at the Teide Observatory, Tenerife, Spain, which is operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
The demonstration was conducted as part of ESA's #SpaceOptics SocialSpace event, 7-8 October.