TESAT Technology Chosen for Key Programme

TESAT is continuing its success story for broadband laser communication in space. The development that ranges back to the laying of the cornerstone within the US NFIRE and TerraSar-X success in 2008, where TESAT first proved the functionality and capability of optical inter-satellite links in low Earth orbit (LEO), comes now to full bloom.

With the recent contract between Lockheed Martin Space and TESAT for the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer Tranche 0 programme, the long-term partnership between the two companies continues. TESAT will provide the ConLCT80, a Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) dedicated for the broadband LEO constellation market. The ConLCT80 is a miniaturisation of the well-known heritage LCT135, which is flying currently on nine satellites, performing 1,000 optical inter-satellite links (OISL) monthly, more than 51,000 in total by now.

Jack Richardson