developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency, TESAT, TNO The Netherlands Space Office (NSO) , VDL group the Airbus UltraAir laser terminal is an aircraft to satellite FSO terminal. TNO was responsible for the development of the steering of “Opto-mechatronics” system, TESAT the laser communication terminal, and VDL group the industrialization or production engineering of the terminal.
In December 2025 test flights out of the Nîmes Airport in France aboard a Dassault Falcon 20, the system demonstrated a sustained transmission rate of 2.6 gigabits over several minutes while connected to the geostationary Alphasat TDP-1 satellite. The laser in use, a LCT 135, has an aperture diameter of 135mm and uses a 1064nm laser, as well as homodyne Binary Phase Key Shifting (BPSK) modulation.[1]
Its development is part of the ESA ScyLight R&D program, which is in turn part of the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program. The system over the long term is part of the European Data Relay System (EDRS), also known as the SpaceDataHighway, which was initially built for satellite to earth communications.
References
[1] https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13699/136990D/Development-and-demonstration-of-an-airborne-laser-communication-system/10.1117/12.3075406.full
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Connectivity_and_Secure_Communications/World-first_gigabit-per-second_laser_link_between_aircraft_and_geostationary_satellite