Aerospace Corp laser delivers 50x increase in data rates to cubesats
Aerospace Corporation announced a successful test of the first space-to-ground laser communications system for cubesats. The test was the second half of the two-part Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) mission. Two 1.5U cubesats in low Earth orbit (LEO) carrying the laser communication system successfully transmitted data at 100 Mbps, which is about 50 times faster than radio-based communication systems used for smaller spacecraft. [caption id="attachment_1747" align="alignleft" width="335"] One of