"NASA and SDA Explore Synergies in Optical Campaign Terminal Sharing"
NASA and the U.S. Space Force's Space Development Agency (SDA) are working on different aspects of optical communications, with NASA focusing on ground networks and SDA on space-to-space links. They plan to test if SDA's commercial satellite-to-satellite terminals can also transmit data to Earth. NASA's SCaN program has been advancing optical communications technology, demonstrated by the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration. The upcoming Artemis 2 mission will feature an optical communications system, O2O, alongside traditional RF communications. NASA aims to develop optical ground stations that can support multiple missions and is encouraging commercial production of the technology.
