  The importance of laser guide stars to the practical usefulness of adaptive
optics cannot be understated, and yet there are very few working systems. This
contribution discusses the current status of the ALFA laser guide star, with
regard to the particular difficulties encountered while observing as well as
both the expected performance and that so far achieved from scientific
observations. A description is given of a number of experiments involving ALFA
which aim to determine the atmospheric turbulence and sodium layer
charateristics, and demonstrate the possibility for tilt recovery from laser
guide stars.
