In 2013, NASA's lunar-orbiting Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) carried an optical communications terminal built by Lincoln Laboratory that communicated with a ground terminal at another site at the White Sands Missile Range. This system, the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) transmitted data in both directions at the fastest speeds ever recorded for deep-space communication. The demonstration is now being followed by a number of optical systems that will allow much higher volumes of data transfer for both scientific discovery and human exploration.