Christine Thropp
BlueHalo has received an $11 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide optical laser communications flight terminals and ground station that the service branch’s research arm will use on satellite service demonstration.
The company said it will help the Air Force Research Laboratory develop and test several technologies for on-orbit processing of satellite positioning and timing.
Some of them are geosynchronous-to-low-Earth-orbit optical uplinks and downlinks, space-to-ground links as well as positioning and timing accuracies over optical communication links.
The collaboration will also look into optical communications standards interoperability.
BlueHalo’s laser communications systems division will be responsible for contract work, which will be conducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico, through February 2025.
The division focuses on next generation optical terminal development and key tech innovation.
