Aerospace Testing InternationalAerospace Testing International
  • News
    • A-E
      • Acoustic & Vibration
      • Avionics
      • Data Acquisition
      • Defense
      • Drones & Air Taxis
      • Electric & Hybrid
      • EMC
      • Engine Testing
      • Environmental Testing
    • F-L
      • Fatigue Testing
      • Flight Testing
      • Helicopters & Rotorcraft
      • High Speed Imaging
      • Industry News
    • M-S
      • Materials Testing
      • NDT
      • Simulation & Training
      • Software
      • Space
      • Structural Testing
      • Supplier News
    • T-Z
      • Technology
      • Telemetry & Communications
      • Weapons Testing
      • Wind Tunnels
  • Features
  • Magazines
    • March 2025
    • Dec 2024/Jan 2025
    • Showcase 2025
    • September 2024
    • June 2024
    • Archive Issues
    • Subscribe Free!
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Events
    • All Events
    • Aerospace Test & Development Show
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Suppliers
    • Supplier Spotlights
    • Press Releases
    • Technical Papers
  • Jobs
    • Browse Jobs
    • Post a Job – It’s FREE!
    • Manage Jobs (Employers)
LinkedIn YouTube X (Twitter)
LinkedIn YouTube X (Twitter)
Subscribe to magazine Subscribe to email newsletter Media Pack
Aerospace Testing InternationalAerospace Testing International
  • News
      • Acoustic & Vibration
      • Avionics
      • Data Acquisition
      • Defense
      • Drones & Air Taxis
      • Electric & Hybrid
      • EMC
      • Engine Testing
      • Environmental Testing
      • Fatigue Testing
      • Flight Testing
      • Helicopters & Rotorcraft
      • High Speed Imaging
      • Industry News
      • Materials Testing
      • NDT
      • Simulation & Training
      • Software
      • Space
      • Structural Testing
      • Supplier News
      • Technology
      • Telemetry & Communications
      • Weapons Testing
      • Wind Tunnels
  • Features
  • Magazines
    1. March 2025
    2. Dec 2024/Jan 2025
    3. Showcase 2025
    4. September 2024
    5. June 2024
    6. March 2024
    7. Archive Issues
    8. Subscribe Free!
    Featured
    19th March 2025

    In this issue: March 2025

    Online Magazines By Ben Sampson
    Recent

    In this issue: March 2025

    19th March 2025
    contents and front cover of magazine

    In this issue: December / January 2025

    19th December 2024
    Showcase 2025

    In this issue – Showcase 2025

    6th November 2024
  • Opinion
  • Webinars
  • Events
    • All Events
    • Aerospace Test & Development Show
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Suppliers
    • Supplier Spotlights
    • Press Releases
    • Technical Papers
  • Jobs
    • Browse Jobs
    • Post a Job – It’s FREE!
    • Manage Jobs (Employers)
LinkedIn YouTube X (Twitter)
Aerospace Testing InternationalAerospace Testing International
Features Space

Laser-based satellite communications is the next step for the internet

Ben SampsonBy Ben Sampson30th June 20218 Mins Read
Share LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Email
Communications satellites in orbit
Laser-based communications are made possible by satellites such as those that provide Airbus' SpaceDataHighway (Image: Airbus)

The use of laser-based satellite communications for the high-speed transmission of large amounts of data is being tested by engineers in space, providing the next step for the internet in terms of speed, bandwidth and applications.

Airbus launched the UltraAir project in May. The two-year research project is developing and flight testing a prototype terminal for use onboard aircraft to enable the receiving and transmitting of data using lasers beamed to and from satellites.

Meanwhile NASA plans to launch its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) satellite this year, which it says could transmit data at rates of up to 1.2Gbps.

 

UltraAir

Airbus’ UltraAir will use the SpaceDataHighway (SDH), Airbus’ laser-based communications service which it provides using its European Data Relay Satellites (EDRS). SDH was launched in 2016 and currently consists of two satellites.

Artist's impression of SpaceDataHighway
UltraAir will use AIrbus’ SpaceDataHighway, to link aircraft with satellites and ground stations via laser beams

Laurent Grouès, head of the SDH at Airbus Defence and Space said, “We can offer bandwidth at an unprecedented rate using laser communications – up to 1.8Gbps – and it will only get faster and better. It has a lot of benefits.

“The data rate is much higher using laser communications. Importantly it overcomes RF’s limitations, where there is only limited spectrum availability. Laser-based communications provide resilience, protection and security.

“Our ambition with the UltraAir is to bring this technology from space, where it has already proven to be incredibly reliable, down to Earth for new applications such as airborne connectivity.”

The UltraAir test program, which is being run with the European Space Agency and Dutch research agency TNO will have three main steps: laboratory testing, then testing from a ground station in Tenerife, Spain to connect to a spacecraft. Finally a prototype UltraAir terminal will be flight tested by creating a data link from inside a Falcon 20LX.

Mathias Wiegand , head of EDRS implementation at Airbus Defense and Space said, “While the UltraAir uses entirely new technologies, we are trying to leverage available technology as much as possible.

“Pointing at the satellite 40,000km away is the biggest technical challenge, with all the vibrations from the aircraft.”

Technology from UltraAir could be used to both improve connectivity on commercial airliners and to improve communications and management of air, land and naval vehicles across battlefields.

The LCRD, which uses technology similar to the SDH, will link to ground stations in California and Hawaii and then next year be used as a communications relay for the International Space Station.

 

European Data Relay Satellites

The EDRS satellites that provide the infrastructure for the SDH service were launched in 2016 and 2019. It is the first commercially-available laser satellite service in the world. Around 2000 terabytes (2 petabytes) have been transferred over 50,000 links.

EDRS uses ground stations in Europe. The existing customers for the EDRS satellites are the European Commission and ESA with Copernicus and their 4 Sentinel 1 and 2 LEO Earth observation satellites

The SDH will soon serve a further the four Pléiades Neo constellation of Earth-imaging satellites, the first of which was launched in April, will also use the SDH. The first highly detailed images from the Pléiades Neo satellite were received in May.

Pléiades Neo 3 satellite Image
The Cheops Pyramid, Cairo, Egypt at 30cm native resolution, by Pléiades Neo 3 satellite
(Image: Airbus)

As well as relaying data to Earth, laser communications will provide inter-satellite links to distribute data between small satellites in mega constellations. “We will see a massive increase of satellites equipped with laser terminals,” says Grouès.

As the demand for data increases, new relay satellites will have to be launched. “We would like to have new nodes in geostationary orbit so we can offer a fully global network,” says Grouès.

 

Commercial and civil applications

A combination of UltraAir and SDH opens up the possibility of many applications in the defense and commercial space. However Laurent says that is unlikely commercial services offering laser-based communications for airlines will be available before the end of this decade.

UltraAir, or a version of it, will more likely be seen in the defense sector first. “The main advantage is that it brings the capability to communicate in places where you can’t normally communicate,” Grouès says. “In this type of application, a main node above the clouds would aggregate and distribute data from and to all other nodes and link to the satellite.”

This means better communication and management of battlefields across air, land and sea domains where communications infrastructure to facilitate it doesn’t exsit. “The second application is ISAR, directly linking drones and providing real time surveillance.”

USA laser-based satellite communications programs

Europe has a lead in laser communications technology and is the first to offer a commercial service, but governments and companies across the world are working hard to develop the technology and close that lead.

NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), which uses technology similar to the SDH, will link to ground stations in California and Hawaii and then next year be used as a communications relay for the International Space Station.

The satellite for the LCRD was expected to be launched in June, but technical problems with the rocket carrying it has delayed the project to later in the year.

According to NASA, the LCRD will demonstrate technology capable of increasing bandwidth up to 100 times more than radio frequency systems.

laser communications compared with RF
Graphic showing the difference in data rates between radio and laser communications (Image: NASA)

The LCRD system consists of microwave-oven-size optical modules that will send and receive data over infrared lasers from geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles above Earth.

LCRD experiments will allow engineers to refine the transmission process, study different operational scenarios, and refine tracking systems. The LCRD program will also generate essential data and information to prepare laser communications systems for operational missions where engineers cannot replicate the same conditions with ground tests.

LCRD will also provide laser communications relay services with a terminal on the International Space Station next year. These operations could prove the viability of using laser communications in future crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.

“LCRD will demonstrate all of the advantages of using laser systems and allow us to learn how to use them best operationally,” said Principal Investigator David Israel at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “With this capability further proven, we can start to implement laser communications on more missions, making it a standardized way to send and receive data.”

 

LINCS launch

In addition to NASA, US aerospace and defence contractor General Atomics is testing its Laser Interconnect and Networking Communication System (LINCS) satellite this summer in partnership with the USA’s Space Development Agency (SDA).

LINCS, which is being launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 comprises of two 12U cubesats each hosting a C-band dual-wavelength full duplex optical communication yerminal (OCT) and an infrared payload.

An OCT integrated onboard an airborne GA-ASI MQ-9 “Reaper” drone flying at around 25,000ft will communicate with the cubesats in low earth orbit as part of the program.

LINCS satellite
General Atomics’ LINCS system will demonstrate connectivity with a Reaper drone

LINCS has been designed and built by GA-Electro Magnetic Systems (GA-EMS) to test the capabilities of laser-based communication in space and to increase its speed, distance, and variability.

“The launch of our two cubesats, supporting the LINCS mission, demonstrates GA-EMS’ ability to provide a complete tailored solution of both satellites and payloads integrated into an affordable design that provides customers significant launch versatility and cost effective solutions to their missions,” said Nick Bucci, vice president of Missile Defense and Space Systems at GA-EMS.

“GA-EMS has invested significantly in enabling technologies, including adaptive optics that compensate for such distortions, to allow our OCTs to provide two-way, low latency, high-bandwidth, secure communication to warfighters in whatever domain they operate.”

Technical and regulatory challenges

With several different programs in development, the opportunities seem large. However, there are barriers to adoption. Grouès says, “We will see mainstream applications using laser-based communications once there is technical consistency and accepted standards.”

There is also one main technical barrier when considering applications for laser communications technology on the Earth’s surface – atmospheric conditions. When the weather is cloudy links to the geostationary satellites is not possible. Site diversity utilizing multiple uplink terminals at different geographical positions overcomes this limitation.

“Optical communication to an air, ground, or maritime asset proposes a different set of challenges than space-to-space communication, because you have to account for distortions to the optical beam caused by atmospheric elements like weather, clouds, dust, and even wind,” said Bucci.

“Laser communications won’t replace radio communications, but it will add extra bandwidth and new capabilities across all markets, to existing and new solutions,” says Grouès.

“This technology is a game-changer. It will result in completely new ways to connect and communicate, adding new capabilities.”

 

 

 

Share. Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Email
Previous ArticleF-35 operational testing pushing boundaries and proving flexibility of fighter jet
Next Article ZeroAvia to move hydrogen aircraft flight testing forward with Dornier 228s
Ben Sampson

Ben has worked as a journalist and editor, covering technology, engineering and industry for the last 20 years. Initially writing about subjects from nuclear submarines to autonomous cars to future design and manufacturing technologies, he was editor of a leading UK-based engineering magazine before becoming editor of Aerospace Testing in 2017.

Related Posts

Features

NDT: Robotics and software spur innovation

21st May 20258 Mins Read
Features

How new computing advances have reignited alternative rocket engine design

14th May 20258 Mins Read
Materials Testing

Glasgow NextSpace facility to test 3D printed space materials

14th May 20253 Mins Read
Latest Posts

Industry Adoption of 3D Optical Surface Gauges

21st May 2025

NDT: Robotics and software spur innovation

21st May 2025

Wisk and NASA to partner on US autonomous flight operations and standards

20th May 2025
Supplier Spotlights
Our Social Channels
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Getting in Touch
  • Subscribe To Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Meet the Team
  • Media Pack
Related Topics
  • Aircraft Interiors
  • Business Jet Interiors
FREE WEEKLY NEWS EMAIL!

Get the 'best of the week' from this website direct to your inbox every Wednesday

© 2023 Mark Allen Group Ltd | All Rights Reserved
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.