Focus: Optical Communications

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has won a new 2.26 million euros ($2.46 million) contract from the European Space Agency (ESA), the company announced May 15. This contract is for the...

NASA’s TBIRD mission recently broke its own record for optical communications in space, demonstrating 200 gigabits per second in a space-to-ground optical link from a satellite in orbit to Earth....

A trio of Dutch organizations are working together to target the laser communications market in the satellite industry. Technology developers Demcon and VDL Group formed a joint venture this month...

A research organization in the Netherlands reached a deal to deploy its laser communications technology on a future Sidus Space satellite for a tech demonstration mission.  The Netherlands Organization for...

Mynaric has delivered multiple lasercom terminals to Telesat for the operators’ satellites involved in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Blackjack Track B program. The company announced Wednesday that...

Japanese space startup Warpspace has signed an order for a small number of Mynaric Condor Mk3 terminals. Warpspace plans to use the terminals to establish a commercial optical data relay...

Airbus and VDL Group are partnering to develop and manufacture a laser communication terminal for aircraft, to exchange data between aircraft, satellites, and ground terminals. The companies announced the UltraAir...

NASA’s TBIRD mission recently achieved a record for optical communications in space. The satellite downlinked 1.4 terabytes of data over laser communications links in a single pass that lasted about...

SpaceX is venturing into Earth observation (EO) and hosted payloads for national security use, with a new business line called Starshield. The company added a section to its website for...

NASA has awarded Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and SpaceLink separate contracts to study near-space communications that would support future Artemis missions to the Moon.   NASA Goddard Space Flight Center announced the...