LatConnect 60 (LC60) has signed a commercial agreement with Transcelestial for an optical communications terminal on its SWIRSAT-1 mission and access to Transcelestial’s optical ground station network for space-to-ground data transport, the companies said on 20 August 2026 in statements released from San Francisco and Perth.

The agreement covers a terminal capable of up to 10 Gbps data rates and a ground network that currently operates two stations and plans to add five to six stations by the end of 2026, enabling the transfer of imagery from the spacecraft to LC60’s processing and delivery system after commissioning.

The deal allows satellite operators to obtain the flight terminal and connectivity as a single service rather than developing separate optical ground infrastructure. It is the second Australian mission to use Transcelestial’s optical downlink after a similar integration with Gilmour Space. A Transcelestial terminal is already in orbit on the 6G StarLab mission, and the company operates two ground stations in Singapore and Spain with additional sites planned.

Dr. Mohammad Danesh, co‑founder and CTO of Transcelestial, said the service provides a high‑capacity optical path without spectrum licensing, addressing the bottleneck of RF downlink capacity and cost per gigabyte for Earth‑observation operators. Venkat Pillay, founder and CEO of LatConnect 60, noted that the mission’s value depends on moving high‑volume short‑wave infrared imagery quickly to end users.

A typical X‑band small‑satellite link transmits about 100 Mbps, moving roughly 5 GB per seven‑minute pass, whereas the optical service can deliver 1 Gbps (about 50 GB) or 10 Gbps (about 500 GB) in the same interval. The narrow, directional optical beam is less susceptible to interception and jamming, and Transcelestial’s post‑quantum cryptographic implementation adds quantum‑resistant protection at the application layer.

Network resilience is achieved through multiple ground stations; weather‑related outages at one location can be mitigated by routing through another, and adaptive data rates with forward error correction maintain throughput as orbital geometry improves. The same ground network can support the planned 18‑satellite constellation without requiring new infrastructure.

Transcelestial designs laser communications hardware and operates a ground network that includes satellite‑to‑ground downlinks, inter‑satellite links, and terrestrial point‑to‑point links, with active stations in Singapore and Spain and production of more than 100 terminals per month. LatConnect 60 is an Australian AI and Earth‑observation company that owns its AI models and satellite technology and plans to launch two SWIRSAT satellites in the first quarter of 2027 as part of an 18‑satellite constellation by 2029, with support from the Australian Space Agency and the Government of Western Australia.

The contract represents a step toward more efficient space‑based data delivery for Earth‑observation missions, though the full constellation’s operational timeline remains to be confirmed.