Forging the Unjammable Data Highways of the Future, from Lithuania to the Stars

In the vast, silent theatre of space, a data storm is brewing. Tens of thousands of satellites are projected to join the thousands already in orbit, a constellation of eyes, ears, and sensors generating an unprecedented deluge of information. This data holds the key to everything from climate monitoring and precision agriculture to modern military superiority. Yet, our ability to bring this torrent of data back to Earth is choked by a fundamental limitation—the crowded, slow, and vulnerable radio frequencies (RF) that have been the lifeblood of space communication for over sixty years.

As CTO Dalius Petrulionis of the Lithuanian startup Astrolight starkly puts it, with current RF systems, “only about 20% of space-generated data is retrievable.” The rest is lost, a ghost in the machine. It is within this critical bottleneck, this chasm between data generation and data delivery, that Astrolight was born. Founded in 2019, this Vilnius-based company is not just building new hardware; it is pioneering the “optical backbone for space,” a new era of communication forged from beams of light, offering speed, security, and bandwidth that RF technology can only dream of. For the defense sector, this isn’t just an upgrade; it’s a paradigm shift.

A Founder’s Vision, Tempered in Space

To understand Astrolight is to understand the journey of its co-founder and CEO, Laurynas Mačiulis. His is a story steeped in the rigors of aerospace engineering, beginning with a research internship at NASA AMES and leading to pivotal roles as the lead engineer for Lithuania’s first satellite missions, LituanicaSAT-1 and LituanicaSAT-2. This hands-on experience culminated in co-founding NanoAvionics, a company he helped build into a globally recognized leader in nanosatellite manufacturing before its successful acquisition by Norway’s Kongsberg Group.

Throughout this journey, Mačiulis witnessed the data problem firsthand. He saw the incredible potential of satellite technology being hamstrung by the limitations of RF. The spectrum was finite, licensing was cumbersome and expensive, and the links were susceptible to jamming and interception—a critical vulnerability in an increasingly contested space domain. He knew a better way was not just possible, but necessary.

“Our long-term vision is to create the optical backbone network for space,” Mačiulis states, his ambition clear. “The amount of satellites and constellations is growing exponentially, but there’s still no scalable, secure way to consistently bring that data back to Earth. With laser communication, we’re closing that gap.”

This wasn’t a solitary vision. In 2019, Mačiulis assembled a formidable founding team, blending his satellite systems expertise with the deep photonics knowledge of Julijanas Želudevičius from the Lithuanian Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, the laser manufacturing prowess of Dalius Petrulionis from Light Conversion, and the academic rigor of Martynas Milaševičius and Andrius Stankevičius from Vilnius Tech University. This fusion of space and light became the foundation of Astrolight.

The ATLAS in the Sky: A New Breed of Laser Terminal

The heart of Astrolight’s solution is the ATLAS series of laser communication terminals. These are not just concepts; they are rugged, space-qualified pieces of hardware designed to be the optical modems of the future. The challenge was immense: create a terminal that was small, light, and power-efficient enough for modern satellites (a metric known as SWaP), yet powerful and precise enough to hit a moving target smaller than a city block from hundreds of kilometers away.

“Passing the Critical Design Review milestone for ATLAS-1 has been neither swift nor simple,” admits CTO Dalius Petrulionis. “The subsystems coming together to make up the ATLAS-1 communication terminal have been in development for the better part of the last four years.”

One of the key innovations that sets the ATLAS terminals apart is their unique two-aperture design. While many competitors use a single aperture for both sending and receiving data, Astrolight’s approach allows for simultaneous and individually optimized transmission, reception, and tracking. This dramatically increases the speed and reliability of acquiring a lock on a ground station—a critical first step for any successful data link.

The result is a system capable of beaming data at up to 10 Gigabits per second, a speed that dwarfs conventional RF links. But speed is only part of the equation. The narrow, focused nature of a laser beam makes it inherently secure. Unlike a radio signal, which broadcasts over a wide area and can be easily intercepted or jammed, a laser link is a private, point-to-point conversation. To intercept it, an adversary would need to be physically within the incredibly narrow beam, making it a near-impossible task. This quality has not gone unnoticed by the defense community.

Validated by NATO, Deployed with Navies: The Dual-Use Advantage

While the commercial applications are vast, Astrolight’s technology has profound implications for defense and security. In a modern battlespace, information superiority is paramount. The ability to quickly and securely download vast amounts of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data from satellites can be the difference between victory and defeat.

This dual-use potential was formally recognized when Astrolight was selected for NATO’s prestigious Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) program. Placing them among the top 3% of applicants, the selection was a powerful endorsement of their technology’s relevance to the Alliance’s security challenges.

“As a commercial company specializing in the development of dual-use telecommunications technology, our partnership with NATO DIANA is pivotal in transitioning our expertise into the defense sector,” explained Mačiulis. The program provides critical guidance on navigating defense-specific requirements and adapting their space-developed products for terrestrial military applications.

One of the most compelling of these applications is already underway. Astrolight is engaged in a project with the Lithuanian Navy to develop ship-to-ship laser communication systems. In naval warfare, a ship’s electromagnetic signature—its RF emissions from radar and communications—can be a beacon that reveals its position to the enemy. By enabling ships to communicate using secure, unjammable, and silent laser links, Astrolight’s technology allows them to maintain operational stealth while still sharing critical tactical data. As a Lithuanian Naval Flotilla Commander noted, this technology introduces “alternative communication methods through laser technology while simultaneously addressing the crucial imperative of reducing electromagnetic signatures for heightened operational stealth.”

The Ground Game: A Portable Gateway to the Stars

Astrolight’s vision extends beyond the terminals in space. They recognized a critical missing piece in the optical communication puzzle: accessible ground stations. A satellite is useless if it has no one to talk to. To solve this, the company developed the OGS-1, a truly portable optical ground station.

In a remarkable demonstration of its expeditionary capabilities, the entire OGS-1 system—telescope, tracking computer, detectors, and modems—was disassembled, packed into four standard suitcases, and flown via a commercial airline to the European Space Agency’s Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. On-site, the team reassembled the station and had it fully operational in just two hours.

Working with ESA, the Astrolight team successfully established a stable laser link with the ‘Flying Laptop’ satellite, demonstrating a reliable, high-bit-rate data downlink. Clemens Heese, Head of ESA’s Optical Technologies Section, lauded the achievement: “A portable optical ground station that you can pack in a suitcase and move to a place where you need to send or receive data offers a lot of possibilities for connecting remote locations – like disaster areas – that don’t have data communications.”

For the defense sector, the implications of a suitcase-sized, pop-up satellite uplink are enormous. It represents the ability to establish high-bandwidth, secure communication hubs in forward-deployed, austere environments without the need for complex infrastructure, providing a tactical advantage that is simply unattainable with traditional systems.

Building the Backbone, One Beam at a Time

Astrolight’s strategic approach is as innovative as its technology. “We heard from customers and partners that a complete solution is what’s missing,” says Mačiulis. “There’s no end-to-end experience – terminals, satellites, and ground infrastructure working as one.”

Astrolight aims to be this end-to-end provider, but not as a competitor to the satellite constellations themselves. Instead, they position themselves as a vital, complementary infrastructure layer. Their goal is to offer “optical connectivity as a service,” allowing satellite operators to plug into their network of terminals and ground stations seamlessly. “Just like everyone uses the internet today without thinking about the cables beneath us, we believe laser communication will become the invisible optical backbone for the next generation of space connectivity,” Mačiulis analogizes.

This clear vision and proven technical expertise have attracted significant investment, including a €2.8 million seed round in May 2025 led by frontier tech investor Balnord. This funding is accelerating the deployment of their first operational ground stations, including a strategic expansion into Denmark to serve the critical data needs of the Arctic region, and furthering partnerships with key players like French optical specialist Cailabs.

From the engineering bays of Vilnius to the volcanic peaks of Tenerife and the strategic decks of naval vessels, Astrolight is methodically building the future of communication. They are solving one of the most significant challenges of the modern space age, creating secure, high-speed data highways that will serve both commercial enterprise and national security. In a world increasingly reliant on the data flowing from orbit, this small Lithuanian company is ensuring that the vital conversations between space and Earth are no longer whispered over crackling radio waves, but carried on silent, unjammable, and limitless beams of light.