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The tesat optical terminal selected by Lockheed Martin satellite has passed ground testing

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2023-10-27 16:52:28
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Tesat Spacecom's laser communication terminal announced on October 26th that the company has passed critical ground testing deployed on NASA satellites.

Tesat's SCOTT80 optical terminal was selected by Lockheed Martin, one of several manufacturers producing satellites for the Space Development Agency.

SDA is an agency under the United States Space Force that plans to deploy a network of interconnected satellites. It includes a transmission layer that will transmit data collected by the missile detection sensor satellite tracking layer. Each spacecraft is equipped with multiple laser communication terminals.

Optical terminals use lasers to connect satellites in orbit so that they can transmit data in space.
Tesat's terminals will be integrated with Lockheed Martin's satellites, which will become part of SDA's planned transmission layer Tranche 1 satellite to be launched by the end of 2024. Lockheed Martin also uses CACI's optical terminals for the Tranche 1 satellite.
All optical terminals installed on SDA satellites must comply with the technical specifications and standards issued by the organization. They must also be able to interoperate with terminals manufactured by other suppliers.

Interoperability with other manufacturers
As part of ground testing, Tesat's terminals must establish data communication links with reference modems, as well as Mynaric and CACI terminals. The terminal of Mynaric will be located on the Tranche 1 satellite of SDA manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
This achievement indicates that Tesat terminals comply with the technical specifications and standards released by SDA and can interoperate with third-party products, "said Thomas Reinartz, the company's CEO, in a statement.

The company pointed out that Kepler Communications has also selected the SCOTT80 optical terminal for its low Earth orbit commercial constellation.

Tesat Spacecom, headquartered in Germany, is establishing a US subsidiary to support military and commercial plans. The company is an independent subsidiary of Airbus Defense and Aerospace.

Tesat plans to start producing optical terminals on Merit Island, Florida. The company stated that to date, 46 Tesat terminals are on track and 180 are in production.

Source: Laser Network


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