Focus: Optical Communications

As satellite operators raise concerns about radio frequency (RF) congestion, greater use of laser communications in response could have unintended consequences. SpaceX, for example, has warned that its cellular Starlink...

Kepler Communications petitioned the FCC this week to adjust its satellite constellation plans for the company’s updated optical data relay infrastructure.  Instead of a network of 360 linked, radio frequency...

While NASA’s TBIRD lasercom payload completed its mission in September, NASA is still sharing milestones it reached. Before the mission ended, a NASA optical ground station transmitted its first laser...

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—The Space Development Agency (SDA) continues to advance the communications capabilities of its first batch of satellites on orbit as part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA),...

Xenesis has won a new Phase 2 contract from the Space Development Agency (SDA) for optical communications terminals. This effort kicked off in December 2023 and is a follow-on effort...

Mynaric is experiencing production delays on its laser communication terminals, causing the company to slash its revenue guidance. Mynaric updated its guidance on August 20 and also announced the company’s...

Kepler Communications has validated optical inter-satellite links, transmitting data between two relay satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The two Kepler satellites used in the test are equipped with Tesat SCOT80...

MDA Space selected Tesat to provide the optical communication terminals (OCT) for Telesat’s Lightspeed Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation.  Tesat announced Tuesday that MDA Space selected its SCOT80 optical communications terminal...

NASA set a new optical data transmission distance record using technology from CACI International, the company announced Thursday. CACI said that NASA transmitted optical data over a distance of more...

Mynaric hit a product maturity milestone by starting volume production for the CONDOR Mk3, its flagship optical communications terminal, Mynaric announced on April 3. The laser communication company began production...