Communications · Recorded milestone
Space laser communication
Recorded year2001
ESA's SILEX sends satellite images by laser in 2001; NASA later beams 622 Mbit/s from lunar orbit and Starlink links satellites by laser.
Explore this milestone on the interactive mapBuilt on
- LaserRecorded · 1960enables
- Communications satelliteRecorded · 1962enables
- MicroprocessorRecorded · 1971requires
Led to
- LEO satellite internetRecorded · 2020enables
- Optical interplanetary linksRecorded · 2023enables
- Solar-powered AI compute in orbitRecorded · 2025enables
- Crewed flight around the MoonRecorded · 2026enables
- Lunar communication gridForecast · ~2033enables
- Interplanetary internetForecast · ~2035enables
- High-bandwidth Mars linkForecast · ~2037enables
- Orbital data centresForecast · ~2038enables
- Optical-clock navigation satellitesForecast · ~2042enables
- Lunar internet serviceForecast · ~2047enables
Sources & evidence
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.