Singapore will launch two satellites next year to test new high-speed low latency inter-satellite communication laser terminals that could help bring the internet to the world’s under-connected regions.
The mission, funded by Singapore’s Office for Space Technology, will test high throughput laser terminals made by Transcelestial, a Singapore-based startup that has used terrestrial tech to provide internet connectivity to Indonesia, Mongolia and the Philippines.
The two satellites will be built by Singapore-based satellite manufacturer ST Engineering Satellite Systems. After launching to LEO in 2026, they will attempt to demonstrate 10 Gbps optical links in space and between the satellites and the ground station.
Just the beginning: For Transcelestial, this is the first step in an ambitious mission. The company’s goal is to deploy an entire laser-linked constellation that would beam connectivity to poorly-connected cities in the developing world as a cheaper alternative to fiber-optic cables.
“Establishing a scalable high bandwidth space network which extends terabits of capabilities not only worldwide… but also to humanity’s march into deep space has been the core mission for the team from Day 1,” Rohit Jha, Transcelestial’s CEO, said in a statement. “After years of testing behind the scenes, this is the first of many steps which takes us to that vision.”
The company didn’t provide estimates of the cost of the mission and didn’t elaborate on when commercial services might become available.
The big picture: Inter-satellite laser links could be a game changer for space ops. They supersede the congested radio frequency spectrum that has traditionally been used to transmit data from space and speed up data transmission. Several companies are working on the tech, including SpaceX’s Starlink, which began using inter-satellite laser links in 2021.
Unlike Starlink, however, Transcelestial doesn’t want to beam content directly to users. Instead, the startup aims to deliver high-throughput links to telecommunication providers in under-connected areas, enabling them to redistribute the connectivity using ground-based 5G and 4G infrastructure.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the speed of the optical links in the 2026 test. It is 10 Gbps.
