Archive for Astrolight

Astrolight Wins Startup World Cup Regional, Heading to Silicon Valley to Compete for $1M Investment

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 3, 2026 by itnerd

Astrolight has won the Lithuanian regional competition of the Startup World Cup, the world’s leading startup pitch contest. The company will head to the Startup World Cup Grand Finale in San Francisco on November 6, 2026, and compete with finalists from around the world for the title of global champion and a US$1 million investment prize.

Earlier, Astrolight secured contracts and partnerships with the European Space Agency (ESA), industry primes, and leading satellite manufacturers. The company has launched three of its ATLAS-1 laser terminals into orbit for testing, joined a Kepler Communications-led team developing ESA’s HydRON optical multi-orbit transport network, and is working with ESA to build the first Arctic optical ground station in Greenland.

Novaspace, the leading space market research firm, projects global revenues for space laser communication terminals will reach $12.9 billion through 2035, driven by the industry’s structural shift away from radio-frequency (RF) communications as operators face mounting RF spectrum constraints: regulatory scrutiny, licensing delays, and interference bottlenecks.

Similar pressure is now reaching AI infrastructure. As land-based datacenters run into limits around space, power, and cooling, industry leaders are starting to look at putting datacenters and compute systems in orbit, with high-speed laser communications as a core infrastructure layer.

Unlike radio-frequency communication, laser links use narrow and focused beams of infrared light, which can transmit data at up to 100 times faster rates than RF and are extremely resilient to electronic interference, jamming, and interception.

Incidents of electronic warfare in space and on land are growing. Russian GPS spoofing from Kaliningrad can now reach 450 km into Europe, GPS/AIS interference has surged in the Middle East Gulf, and Russia has been accused of intercepting European satellite communications and regularly jamming UK military satellites.

Startup World Cup is a global startup competition and conference organized by Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based multinational venture capital firm. The competition includes more than 100 regional events across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, followed by the Grand Finale in Silicon Valley.

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Astrolight contributes laser communication terminal technology to ESA’s HydRON Element 3 mission led by prime contractor Kepler Communications

Posted in Commentary with tags , on April 15, 2026 by itnerd

Kepler Communications is leading a group of industry partners, including Astrolight, a Lithuanian space and defense technology company developing laser communication solutions for space, ground, and maritime applications. The companies have been awarded a multimillion-euro contract under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) High-throughput Optical Network (HydRON) to develop HydRON’s user-terminal segment, known as Element 3. HydRON is a project under ESA’s Optical and Quantum Communications – Scylight programme, within the Agency’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES). Led by Kepler as the spacecraft provider and mission operator, Astrolight will provide its latest-generation ATLAS-X laser communication terminal for hybrid optical links across LEO, GEO, and ground.

The HydRON project aims to demonstrate the world’s first optical multi-orbit transport network in space, extending high-capacity, fibre-like connectivity into orbit and bolstering the resilience of European communications infrastructure through a secure, high-capacity, and interoperable optical data relay network.

HydRON’s Element 3 mission focuses on demonstrating the applications of laser communication technology within the user segment by creating a testing environment in real operating conditions. In the long term, it is intended to enable external commercial optical users to connect to the HydRON network and route their data through it.

As part of the mission, Astrolight’s ATLAS-X laser communication terminal will be hosted aboard a Kepler satellite for in-orbit demonstration. The mission will validate inter-satellite and space-to-ground links in LEO and attempt multi-orbit links between LEO and GEO. Following the demonstration, ATLAS-X will serve as a data relay node, enabling the Kepler spacecraft to connect with other elements of the HydRON network.

ATLAS-X is Astrolight’s next-generation low-SWaP (size, weight, and power) laser communication terminal, building on the company’s earlier ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-2 solutions. It is designed for both space-to-space and space-to-ground links and features a coarse pointing assembly, offering greater operational flexibility and easier deployment across a wider range of spacecraft. ATLAS-X is compatible with a subset of the ESA Specification for Terabit/sec Optical Links (ESTOL) standard and is SDA-compatible.

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Naval Group Announces Partnership with Astrolight to Supply Ships with Jam-Proof Laser Communication Terminals

Posted in Commentary with tags , on February 9, 2026 by itnerd

French shipbuilding giant Naval Group and Lithuanian space-tech company Astrolight signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU marks the beginning of a collaboration between the two companies to test Astrolight’s POLARIS laser terminal on Naval Group’s vessels, exploring the potential for future integration of the technology. The partnership comes as Naval Group works to design a new multi-purpose vessel for the Lithuanian Navy, with plans to equip the ship with POLARIS.

Laser communication uses narrow, focused light beams that are nearly impossible to interfere with and detect. This new technology complements today’s cutting-edge technologies by mitigating risks associated with communication security, bandwidth, and data rate.

The new Multi-Purpose Offshore Patrol Vessel developed by Naval Group is designed to be versatile, capable of adapting quickly to changing mission needs. It can be used for combat, transport, launching unmanned aerial vehicles, and even converting into a floating hospital in an emergency.

The MoU between Naval Group and Astrolight was signed at the Lithuanian Maritime Defence Industry Days in Vilnius, where Naval Group, Belgium Naval & Robotics, and Exail showcased their vision for a new ship tailored to the needs of the Lithuanian Navy. The event was organized by the Lithuanian Engineering and Technology Industry Association.

This year, Astrolight’s POLARIS laser terminal was successfully tested with the Lithuanian Navy, as well as at NATO’s REPMUS/Dynamic Messenger, the largest exercise focusing on maritime unmanned systems in the world, and NATO’s largest military exercise in Latvia, DiBax. There, Astrolight demonstrated jam-proof, undetectable, and high-bandwidth ship-to-ship and land-to-land laser-based communication links. 

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NATO’s Biggest Naval Exercise Proves Undetectable Ship-to-Ship Laser Communication

Posted in Commentary with tags on October 17, 2025 by itnerd

Lithuanian space and defense tech company Astrolight has successfully demonstrated undetectable, unjammable, and high-bandwidth laser-based ship-to-ship communication with its POLARIS terminal during REPMUS’25, NATO’s largest unmanned maritime exercise recently.

During the REPMUS (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Uncrewed Systems)/Dynamic Messenger mission, hosted by the Portuguese Navy, POLARIS laser terminals maintained a stable, jam-proof horizon-limited laser-based link between two vessels: NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida and NRP Dom Carlos I. During testing, the link wasn’t detected by a single sensor of other participating ships, drones, and land assets.

Astrolight’s terminals also transmitted gigabytes of data at latencies and speeds that allow for more than 10 concurrent, real-time HD video streams, even through rain and fog, during the day and night.

Jamming is a serious problem at sea because it can distort satellite navigation, confuse radar and ship-tracking displays, and interrupt radio and satellite communications. In such cases, crews switch to less secure backup methods like noisy radio or signal lamps that increase a ship’s electromagnetic signature and make it easier to detect.

The demonstration of Astrolight’s POLARIS in Portugal builds on prior tests with the Lithuanian Navy.

NATO’s REPMUS/Dynamic Messenger exercise combines REPMUS, the top event for maritime robotics and unmanned tech, and Dynamic Messenger, a program for testing innovative naval systems. They bring together NATO Allies, partners, academia, and industry experts, and provide a realistic setting to evaluate new maritime capabilities and promote their integration into NATO operations.

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