ESA is looking into using lasers to send data from Earth to geostationary orbit. It operates the European Data Relay System (EDRS) packages from that high altitude orbit – payloads sharing room on commercial satellites which communicate with a constellation of low earth orbit planet-monitoring satellites called Sentinels. Currently Sentinel-EDRS communication is by laser and …
This story continues at Earth to Space laser comms needs special tuning
Or just read more coverage at Electronics Weekly