US Capella Validates 2.5 Gbps Optical Terminal on Radar Satellite

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Capella Space has successfully completed an in-orbit validation of a Mynaric optical communication terminal on its Acadia-10 satellite, marking the company's first deployment of an optical terminal, achieving a data transmission rate of 2.5 gigabits per second during testing.

The Acadia-10 satellite was launched in March this year, and Capella Space released the satellite's first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images on Wednesday. The Mynaric optical communication terminal onboard the satellite is compatible with the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) OCT standard, enabling communication with SDA's proliferated low Earth orbit (LEO) network. Capella stated that near-real-time data handover eliminates the need for satellites to wait long periods to establish contact with ground stations, compressing the mission-to-delivery timeline from hours to minutes, fundamentally changing how users leverage SAR data.

Capella had already announced plans in 2021 to equip its satellites with Mynaric optical communication terminals. However, a Capella spokesperson revealed that future Acadia satellites will switch to Skyloom optical communication terminals. Capella and Skyloom are both currently under the quantum company IonQ. IonQ views these two acquisitions as part of its strategy to bring quantum networks to space. The spokesperson stated that Capella satellites will be equipped with Skyloom optical communication terminals starting in 2027.

Integrating the optical communication terminal into Capella's SAR satellites required significant engineering effort. These satellites are among the larger commercial SAR types, with a mass of 175 to 195 kilograms and a solar panel array power of 700 watts. Capella explained that the optical communication terminal had to be physically integrated into an SAR satellite platform with strict thermal, mechanical, and power constraints, while its pointing and scheduling logic needed to be rebuilt around a payload operating differently from the X-band downlink.

In April this year, SDA awarded Capella a contract under the HALO Europa Track 1 program to design two satellites for demonstrating advanced tactical waveform performance, adaptive beamforming, and secure tactical communications in low Earth orbit. Specific details of testing with SDA under the HALO agreement will be announced at a later date.

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