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About
Astrolight is a Lithuanian space communications company headquartered in Vilnius that develops and manufactures optical (laser) communication terminals. Its products include the modular ATLAS-1 terminal for space-to-Earth, space-to-space and ship-to-ship links, the ATLAS-X terminal, the POLARIS laser terminal for terrestrial and naval use, and optical ground stations such as OGS-1, OGS-2 and HERMES. The company is building a dual-use optical communication architecture and aims to offer optical communication as a service, connecting its own terminals and those of other providers to its ground infrastructure. Its stated focus is on unjammable, radio-silent and low-SWaP links for aerospace and defense applications.
Astrolight was founded in 2019 by Laurynas Mačiulis, a former CTO of Kongsberg Nanoavionics, together with Julijanas Želudevičius, Dalius Petrulionis, Martynas Milaševičius and Andrius Stankevičius, with ties to Lithuania's Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Light Conversion and Vilnius Tech University. The company was a selected participant in NATO's DIANA programme and has received support from EUSPA's CASSINI initiative. In 2025 it closed a €2.8M seed round led by Balnord.
The company's ATLAS-1 terminal was launched into orbit on 30 March 2026 aboard a Falcon rocket, reported as the first Lithuanian laser communications system to reach space. In October 2026 Astrolight announced an autonomous 1 Gb/s space-to-ground laser link between the ATLAS-1 terminal on the University of Athens ERMIS-3 cubesat and a Greek ground station, operated remotely from Lithuania. Other announced work includes an optical ground station in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, built with ESA, a partnership with Naval Group to test the POLARIS terminal on Lithuanian ships, a contribution to ESA's HydRON network through Kepler Communications, and a planned 2027 in-flight laser link demonstration with ATMOS Space Cargo's PHOENIX 2 reentry vehicle.
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