In August 2005 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched the Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS) by the Dnepr launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to demonstrate innovative technologies of laser-based optical inter-orbit communications between OICETS and European Space Agency’s (ESA) Advanced Relay and Technology Mission Satellite (ARTEMIS). The Dnepr launch vehicle is the rocket which is converted from the SS-18 liquid-fuelled Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and operated together with the launch facility located on the Baikonur Cosmodrome by ISC Kosmotras. This was a challenging task because JAXA had to modify OICETS, which had already been manufactured and tested to be launched by Japanese J-1 rocket, to accommodate to the new launch vehicle interface and the change of orbit. JAXA also had to plan the launch campaign at the unfamiliar launch site. All of these works were completed in 13 months, thanks to the dedicated efforts of all the participants. In this paper, experiences gained from coordination works of the launch vehicle interface and the launch campaign in Baikonur are presented.

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The Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS, “KIRARI”) was developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The main contractor is NEC Corporation. OICETS was launched into low earth orbit (LEO; altitude of 610km) (Ref.1), leading to the success of two world”s first demonstrations in the laser optical inter-orbit communications. The first was two-way communications between OICETS and Advanced Relay and Technology Mission Satellite (ARTEMIS) of the European Space Agency (SEA) in geostationary orbit (GEO) in Dec.2005. The other was communications between OICETS (in LEO) and an optical ground station, in March 2006. The secondary mission of OICETS is the development of a 500 kg class standard satellite bus for J-1 Rocket. This paper presents the design features of OICETS to achieve optical inter-orbit communication and standard satellite bus.

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Optical Inter-orbit Communications Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS) is an advanced engineering test satellite developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to carry out the inter-satellite laser communication experiments in orbit. It was launched into low earth sun-synchronous orbit in August 2005. On 9th December, 2005, the first bi-directional laser communications link between the OICETS and European Space Agency’s geostationary satellite ARTEMIS was successfully established. The inter-orbit laser link experiments were successfully conducted over a period of six months since December 2005. The authors conducted the experiment more than 100 times during the experiment campaign. Acquisition sequence, tracking performance and bit error characteristics were measured and evaluated. These results show the acquisition probability was more than 90% and the bit error rate were less than 10^-6. In-orbit experiment results indicate the possibility of establishing inter-satellite laser communication. This paper describes in-orbit experiment results of the inter-satellite laser communication.

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The first bi-directional laser communication demonstration between an optical ground station and the Optical Inter-orbit Communication Engineering Test Satellite (OICETS, Japanese name “Kirari”) was successfully conducted in March and May 2006 with an uplink of 2 Mbps and a downlink of 50 Mbps. The optical communication quality was improved in September 2006. The optical ground station, located in Koganei, Tokyo, Japan, is operated by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan. The Kirari Optical Communication Demonstration Experiments with the NICT optical ground station was called “KODEN”. Four laser beams were transmitted from the optical ground station to the OICETS satellite in order to reduce the optical signal's intensity fluctuation due to atmospheric turbulence. The optical scintillation as a function of the number of beams and the frequency response were measured, and the uplink and downlink laser transmission results were obtained.

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