Recent satellites of the European Data Relay System (EDRS) are established with free-space optical (FSO) terminals. Operational FSO links in space are commercially available. Links between ALPHASAT or EDRS-A as GEO terminals and Sentinel LEO terminals are established with TRL 9. However laser links from the satellites through the atmosphere have a low Technical Readiness Level. Starting 2015 an Airborne Optical Communication (AOC) Demonstrator was developed by Hensoldt, which provides Air-to-Space unidirectional communication capabilities over approximately 40000 km distance (Geo orbit) at a data rate of 1.8 Gbit/s at a wavelength of 1064 nm with a laser power of approx. 15 W. The demonstrator was flown on an Airbus A310 aircraft. Successful links with user data streams from Tenerife to the GEO Alphasaat proved the function of AOC.

© (2019) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Hubertus Haan and Christofer Siemens, "Airborne optical communication terminal: first successful link from Tenerife to the GEO Alphasat," Proc. SPIE 11133, Laser Communication and Propagation through the Atmosphere and Oceans VIII, 1113306 (Presented at SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications: August 13, 2019; Published: 6 September 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2529223.