China is building a lunar navigation and communications network. Lasers shine again in latest demonstration.

China announced last month that it has demonstrated two-way optical laser communications between Earth and its DRO-A satellite, which was launched in 2024 and put in a stable Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO). Earlier this year during NASA’s Artemis II mission, the Orion spacecraft demonstrated the same high-data-rate communications technology at 2.5 times DRO-A’s downlink speed of 100Mbps. The technology could be used by each country to get high quality streams of astronaut landings on the Moon of China and the USA respectively later this decade and early next. Jack Congram has reported additional context on China’s optical communications advancements with satellites in Earth orbit.Graphic showing components of the Earth-Moon optical laser communications demonstrated by China’s DRO-A satellite. Image: CSU / CASOptical communication is one part of the stack of technologies required in building a comprehensive lunar navigation and communications (navcom) network. Last year, China cemented…