This issue of Photonics Focus looks to the near-future and how it will be shaped by photonics. Lasers are being devised to facilitate communications in and between the Earth and Space. New photonics based technologies are fast-tracking fusion energy via numerous venture-capital-funded startups and their close association with research scientists. Quantum networking of atomic clocks and many other devices promises a world of undreamed of possibilities for sensing, imaging, and measurement accuracy—perhaps all before practical quantum computing applications.