An innovative experiment flying aboard NASA's Psyche mission just hit its first major milestone by successfully carrying out the most distant demonstration of laser communications.
United Airlines 1550 from Raleigh, North Carolina, an Airbus A319 aircraft, reported the green laser at an altitude of about 3,000 feet when the flight was about 14 miles southwest of Newark Liberty Airport.
The pilot of a Skylink Express flight reported the laser strike at about 1 a.m. Wednesday.
The incident happened around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18, at the intersection of East 181st Street and Third Avenue in the Tremont section, when an unidentified passenger on a Bx15 bus aimed a laser pointer at the bus' rear-view mirror.
It apparently illuminated the Airbus A320 aircraft when it was four miles northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport at an altitude of 6,000 feet at about 9:45 p.m. Friday.