Astrolight is developing free-space optical communication systems. Photo: Astrolight

Cailabs will host Astrolight’s laser communications terminal on an upcoming satellite mission, the companies announced June 28. Astrolight’s lasercom terminal ATLAS-1 will demonstrate pointing, acquisition, and tracking capabilities at gigabit per second data rates between the spacecraft and and Cailabs optical ground station (OGS).

Astrolight is developing a direct-to-Earth optical data downlink system for LEO satellites. ATLAS-1 is a demonstration version of Astrolight’s ATLAS product line. The company says that future versions will offer downlink speeds of over 10 Gbps, and the product line is designed for Earth observation satellites. 

“We look forward to demonstrating reliable and stable pointing, acquisition and tracking between ATLAS-1 and Cailabs OGS over as many passes as possible. This is a fundamental prerequisite for developing a commercial data downlink solution that will be useful to our customers. Space-to-Earth optical communication is challenging and most of the missions so far have failed just in this first step,” commented Laurynas Maciulis, co-founder and CEO of Astrolight.

Astrolight previously demonstrated a satellite-to-ground laser communications link with the company’s own portable optical ground station and an experimental laser transmitter system on the ‘Flying Laptop’ satellite in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The company was founded in 2019 in Lithuania by researchers from the Center for Physical and Technological Sciences and Vilnius Tech University. The company is currently developing free-space optical communication systems.