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A Chinese Satellite Just Pulled Off Something Starlink Hasn’t. Credit: Shutterstock | Indian Defence Review
A Chinese satellite just outperformed Starlink—using a laser no stronger than a nightlight. Fired from 36,000 km above Earth, this silent tech breakthrough is shaking up the future of space internet, military comms, and deep space links. The method? Unexpected. The power used? Shockingly low.
Evelyn Hart
Published on December 19, 2025
Far above the Earth’s surface, a Chinese satellite has quietly pulled off something that challenges one of today’s most ambitious space technologies. From 36,000 kilometers away, it fired a laser signal that reached a ground station on Earth—not only intact but also carrying a high-speed data stream. The most surprising part? The entire system ran on just 2 watts of power.
The achievement hasn’t drawn the kind of global attention that follows rocket launches or mega-constellation announcements. But for those watching the evolution of space-based internet, this beam of light from geostationary orbit may prove to be far more disruptive. What it lacks in flash, it delivers in engineering clarity.
In a field where SpaceX’s Starlink has set the pace through sheer scale—thousands of satellites operating in low Earth orbit (LEO)—China’s laser test introduces a starkly different model: fewer satellites, higher altitude, minimal power, and impressive results.
A Laser Through Turbulence
Beaming data from orbit to ground isn’t a trivial task—especially with lasers. Earth’s atmosphere distorts light as it passes through, scattering even narrow optical signals and degrading their quality. Most standalone systems relying on adaptive optics or mode diversity reception couldn’t stabilize laser links well enough to sustain high data rates under real-world conditions.
Illustration Concept Of A Fleet Of Internet Starlink Satellites In Orbit Above Planet Earth. Credit: Shutterstock
To address this, researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a combined approach, called AO-MDR synergy, which dynamically corrects distorted laser beams in real time. Using an array of 357 micro-mirrors inside a 1.8-meter telescope at the Lijiang Observatory, the system reshaped incoming light, then split the corrected signal into eight separate channels via a multi-plane light converter. A real-time algorithm selected the three strongest for decoding.
That technique lifted the usable signal rate to 91.1%, significantly improving upon the 72% baseline reported in earlier systems, as documented in the peer-reviewed study published in Acta Optica Sinica.
Outperforming Starlink with a Fraction of the Hardware
The system’s most striking feature is its efficiency. The laser downlink operated using only 2 watts of power, which is comparable to a small nightlight. From geostationary orbit, that signal achieved a downlink speed of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps)—a performance level that, for now, places it far ahead of most commercial satellite internet services.
Starlink, by comparison, uses low Earth orbit satellites around 550 km high and requires an intricate network of thousands of fast-moving spacecraft to deliver service. Its current average download speeds hover near 67 megabits per second (Mbps), depending on location and network congestion.
Summary Of The Recently Found Starlink Speed Tests. Credit: r/Starlink
China’s experiment proposes a simpler model—one that, instead of saturating LEO, places a smaller number of optical satellites in higher orbit to cover broader areas more efficiently. Analysis from Interesting Engineering highlighted the implications of the test, noting the dramatic leap in performance stability and the reduced infrastructure requirements compared to RF-based systems.
More than Speed: Security, Science, and Scale
The system’s applications stretch well beyond high-speed downloads. Because laser beams are narrow and focused, they’re less vulnerable to interception or jamming. That makes them attractive for military communication systems, deep space missions, and scientific telemetry, where data integrity and signal discretion are critical.
While traditional radio frequency (RF) communications remain dominant in satellite links, they’re increasingly hampered by spectrum congestion and interference. Optical systems bypass many of those limits, and the precision of the AO-MDR approach allows them to remain viable even through turbulent atmospheric layers.
This isn’t China’s only milestone in the field. In early 2025, Chinese scientists reportedly achieved a 100 Gbps satellite-to-ground laser transmission, marking a tenfold increase over the current test’s data rate. That development, if confirmed, would further position optical systems as a major contender in the next generation of space-based communication infrastructure.
A Quiet Shift in Satellite Internet Strategy
As competition in orbital connectivity intensifies, China’s approach introduces a quieter—but potentially more scalable—model. Instead of relying on large-scale satellite fleets, this test suggests that precision optical payloads, paired with advanced signal processing, could unlock high-throughput communications from just a few geostationary platforms.
Scaling the system will require global expansion of laser-compatible ground stations, improvements in all-weather reliability, and continued optical engineering advances. But if those pieces fall into place, this could represent a turning point—especially for regions that require high-speed internet but can’t support the infrastructure of LEO constellations.
In contrast to the orbital saturation of Starlink, this system points to a cleaner, more energy-efficient path. The fact that it reached five times the performance of Starlink’s average speed with just one GEO satellite and 2 watts of power speaks volumes.
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