Results of Ground-to-Space Optical Communications Experiments using a Low Earth Orbit Satellite

Abstract

Ground-to-satellite laser communication experiments between the optical ground station developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) located in Koganei, Tokyo and a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite, the Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS) called "Kirari" developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), were successfully performed in March and May, 2006. The Kirari optical communication demonstration experiments with the NICT optical ground station (KODEN) were conducted as a cooperative experiment between JAXA and NICT