China team’s space laser breakthrough takes communication speeds to high orbit

SCMP | March 4, 2026, 8:30 a.m. | Original

The laser communication ground station at the Gaomeigu Observatory in Yunnan province, southwest China where the experiment was conducted. Photo: Handout

Chinese scientists have reported a milestone in space laser communications, sustaining a high-speed, hours-long laser link with a satellite more than 40,000km (25,000 miles) above the Earth. The capability is seen as critical to future deep-space networks.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Optics and Electronics, which led the project, researchers used a 1.8-metre (6-foot) aperture telescope in Yunnan province to lock onto a geostationary satellite within four seconds.

During the experiment, which lasted more than three hours, the laser link sustained uninterrupted data transmission at 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) in both directions, the Sichuan Observer reported on Tuesday.

The research team described the result as a “leading breakthrough” in long-duration, real-time communication in high orbit, where the tiniest of pointing errors or shifts in the atmosphere can break the beam.

Lead researcher Liu Chao said high-orbit satellite-ground communication was often unstable and brief, sometimes lasting only minutes. And while data travels quickly from satellites, signals from Earth are much slower, making real-time interaction difficult.

“It’s like sending someone 10 messages and getting only one reply,” Liu told the Sichuan Observer. “It’s hard to have an efficient conversation that way.”

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