The National Ignition Facility, as well as its French counterpart,Le Laser Megajoule, have been designed to confront one of the most difficult and compelling problem in shock physics—the creation of a hot, compressed DT plasma surrounded and confined by cold, nearly degenerate DT fuel. At the same time, these laser facilities will present the shock physics community with unique tools for the study of high energy density matter at states unreachable by any other laboratory technique. Here we describe how these lasers can contribute to investigations of high energy density matter in the areas of material properties and equations of state, extend present laboratory shock techniques such as high-speed jets to new regimes, and allow study of extreme conditions found in astrophysical phenomena. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.