Astrogate Labs, a deep-tech company based in Bangalore, has announced a major breakthrough in India’s space communications sector.

The firm is developing the country’s first indigenous Optical Inter-Satellite Link terminal, with flight readiness targeted for 2027.

This milestone was unveiled at the Bangalore Space Expo 2026, where the company also demonstrated AstroLink Micro, its 10 GBPS laser communication terminal.

The announcement builds on Astrogate’s earlier success in supplying space-to-ground laser communication terminals to ISRO, making it the only Indian company to deliver this strategic technology to the national space agency.

Astrogate’s space-to-ground terminals have already achieved Technology Readiness Level 8, meaning they are fully qualified for flight.

The company has also completed cross-compatibility testing with the University of Western Australia’s TeraNet mobile optical ground station, confirming interoperability with international infrastructure.

The unveiling of the OISL capability at the Expo marks Astrogate’s transition from satellite-to-ground optical communications to satellite-to-satellite connectivity, a critical step in building advanced orbital networks.

Founder and CEO Nitish K. Singh highlighted the significance of this achievement, noting that laser communication in India has evolved from a research concept into a deliverable product, with ISRO as a customer.

He emphasised that OISL is the more complex challenge, one that determines who will build the connectivity layer for future Low Earth Orbit constellations.

Singh stressed that Astrogate is building this technology with complete ownership in India, reinforcing the country’s sovereign capability in advanced communications.

The company’s technology addresses the growing bottleneck in conventional RF links, which face spectrum and bandwidth constraints as satellite constellations generate increasing volumes of data.

Optical communications, using highly directional laser beams, offer secure, high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity.

Astrogate is targeting three key markets with its OISL terminal: satellite backhaul, sovereign defence constellations, and orbital compute.

These applications span both commercial and strategic satellite networks, making OISL a highly specialised and strategically important segment of the optical communications market.

OISL enables satellites to communicate directly with one another, moving data across a constellation before routing it to Earth.

SpaceX has already demonstrated this architecture at scale, with its 2025 Starlink progress report citing more than 13,000 bidirectional laser links operating as an optical mesh in orbit.

Astrogate aims to replicate and indigenise such capabilities for India’s space ecosystem.

Co-Founder and CTO Jayaraman Yogeshwaran explained that the core building blocks of Astrogate’s OISL terminal—such as the Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking system, optical modem, stabilised coarse tracking gimbals, and system-level integration—were developed and validated for the company’s space-to-ground terminals.

This technological inheritance places flight readiness within reach by 2027, ensuring continuity and reliability in development.

Astrogate Labs designs and manufactures indigenous Free Space Optical Communication terminals for space and other high-performance communication applications.

Its proprietary systems, including Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking subsystems and optical modems, are developed entirely in-house.

Headquartered in Bangalore with an office in Durham, England, the company has validated its technology with ISRO and international partners such as the University of Western Australia’s TeraNet mobile optical ground station.

With its expansion into Optical Inter-Satellite Links, Astrogate is positioning itself as a key player in building the optical layer for future satellite networks.

ANI