Gilmour Space Technologies and Transcelestial have formed a long-term strategic partnership to bring laser communications capabilities to advance how data moves on satellites.
As part of an upcoming mission, Gilmour Space will fly a Transcelestial terminal and support an in-orbit demonstration designed to validate the performance of wireless laser communications in real operating conditions.
"Gilmour Space's satellite capabilities are rapidly expanding and their bus is going to be one of the first in the world to be laser comms enabled by default. This capability puts them ahead of most bus manufacturers in the world and we are quite excited to see what this unlocks for the industry," Jha stated.
"To solidify that, we are also rapidly launching our first demonstration this year. Super excited to work with the Gilmour team."
The planned flight has come as satellite operators face a growing mismatch between how much data spacecraft can collect and how quickly they can deliver it to users on the ground, especially as sensors become more capable, data and connectivity workloads become more bandwidth and time-sensitive.
"One of the key limitations in satellite operations is data transmission from the platform to the ground. Laser communication links are one of the clearest paths to relieve that bottleneck, and our collaboration with Transcelestial is about proving how it performs in real operations," Head of Satellites at Gilmour Space, Mark Grimminck, stated.
"We're focused on making it easier for satellite customers to adopt next-generation communications options without taking on unnecessary integration risk."
Transcelestial's laser communications technology will hopefully unlock a new infrastructure layer for data to move from satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground, also delivering security in the point to point communication which is impervious to jamming and has baked in Post Quantum Cryptography enabled for Quantum-safe communications.
The terminal delivery has been scheduled for May 2026, ahead of the planned demonstration to be launched on the SpaceX Transporter-18 mission later in the year.
Beyond the initial downlink demonstration, the companies plan to explore how optical links can support future satellite networking needs, including satellite-to-satellite connectivity to enable more resilient, lower-latency constellations.
They will also explore opportunities to strengthen the enabling infrastructure around optical communications, including the potential to co-host an Optical Ground Station in Queensland and jointly pursue Australian R&D grants for future demonstrator missions and super advanced network capabilities.