PRNewswire

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 8: Astrogate Labs, an Indian deep-tech company building Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) systems for space and defense, is developing India's first indigenous Optical Inter-Satellite Link (OISL) terminal, targeting flight readiness in 2027. The company unveils its OISL capability and demonstrates AstroLink Micro, its 10 Gbps laser communication terminal, at Bengaluru Space Expo 2026, building on its space-to-ground terminals supplied to ISRO and targeting OISL flight readiness in 2027.

Astrogate has supplied an indigenously developed satellite-to-ground lasercomm terminal to ISRO, making it the only Indian company to deliver this strategic technology to the national space agency.

The company's space-to-ground laser communication terminals have reached TRL 8 - complete and qualified for flight. It also completed cross-compatibility testing with the University of Western Australia's TeraNet mobile optical ground station, confirming interoperability with international ground infrastructure. 

The company has unveiled the OISL capability at Bengaluru Space Expo 2026, taking place from 7-9 September at BIEC, alongside a live demonstration of AstroLink Micro, its 10 Gbps space-to-ground laser communication terminal. Together they mark Astrogate's extension from satellite-to-ground optical communications to satellite-to-satellite connectivity. 

'Some time back, laser communication from India was a research question. Today it is a product we deliver, with ISRO as a customer. OISL is the harder problem, and it is the one that decides who builds the connectivity layer for future LEO constellations. We are building it, with technology owned end to end in India,' said Nitish K. Singh, Founder & CEO, Astrogate Labs. 

Building the optical layer for future satellite networks 

As satellite constellations generate increasing volumes of data, conventional RF links face growing spectrum and bandwidth constraints. Optical communications use highly directional laser beams to deliver secure, high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity. Astrogate's technology targets that bottleneck. 

Astrogate is targeting three markets with the terminal: satellite backhaul, sovereign defence constellations and orbital compute. With applications across commercial and strategic satellite networks, OISL represents a highly specialised and strategically important segment of the optical communications market.

OISL allows satellites to communicate directly with one another, moving data across a constellation before it is routed to Earth. SpaceX has proven the architecture at scale: its 2025 Starlink progress report describes more than 13,000 bidirectional laser links operating as an optical mesh in orbit.

'The core building blocks of our OISL terminal - the Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking (PAT) system, the optical modem, stabilized coarse tracking gimbals and system-level integration - were developed and validated for Astrogate's space-to-ground terminals, and carry over to inter-satellite links. That inheritance is what puts flight readiness within reach by 2027,' said Jayaraman Yogeshwaran, Co-Founder & CTO, Astrogate Labs.

About Astrogate Labs 

Astrogate Labs designs and manufactures indigenous Free Space Optical Communication terminals for space and other high-performance communication applications, integrating proprietary Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking systems, optical modems and other subsystems developed in-house. Headquartered in Bengaluru, with an office in Durham, England, the company has validated its technology with end-users including ISRO and the University of Western Australia's TeraNet mobile optical ground station and is extending its portfolio from space-to-ground terminals to Optical Inter-Satellite Links.

Media contact:

Dhivya Abirami

Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

www.astrogatelabs.com 

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