The French space agency CNES has selected Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Leonardo, to develop a very-high throughput laser communications demonstrator. Called SOLiS — for Service Optique de Liaisons Spatiales Sécurisées (secure optical space link service) — the project aims to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of an optical communications service relying on geostationary satellites. SOLiS plans to develop an optical communications payload and a pilot ground station designed to demonstrate very-high-throughput laser communications. The project leverages technologies developed through the government-backed Optical Communications (CO-OP) project and draws on the outcomes of demonstrations delivered for the VERTIGO project funded by the European Commission. The SOLiS project aims to develop an optical communications payload for a geostationary satellite and a ground station to demonstrate very-high throughput laser communications. Courtesy of Thales Alenia Space/E. Briot. In accordance with a memorandum of understanding between Thales Alenia Space and operator Hellas Sat signed in 2024, this payload will be flown on the Hellas Sat 5 geostationary communications satellite, while the pilot ground station will be set up at the operator’s teleport in Cyprus. This station will communicate with CNES’s FROGS station already operating at the Côte d’Azur Observatory on the Mediterranean coast. Thales Alenia Space will lead the SOLiS project consortium, composed of large industry primes and mid-tier firms (Safran Data Systems, Bertin Technologies, Exail, Keopsys), SMEs (Cedrat Technologies), startups (OGS Technologies, Reuniwatt), and a research center (ONERA), most of which have already worked on the CO-OP project.