Mynaric passes major product milestone of CONDOR Mk3, completing verification and interoperability tests

September 28, 2023

Mynaric announced an important product milestone of its CONDOR Mk3 optical communications terminals. After an intensive test campaign, CONDOR Mk3 passed optical verification and phase 1 of interoperability tests in context of the Tranche 1 program of the Space Development Agency (SDA) confirming the product’s compliance with the SDA’s Optical Communications Terminal (OCT) Standard. Mynaric will supply the CONDOR Mk3 terminals to Northrop Grumman’s satellites for the Tranche 1 Transport and Tracking Layer programs. 

“We have successfully passed the rigorous test regimes and scenarios which demonstrate our terminal’s compliance with SDA’s requirements and actual interoperability with a third-party product,” said Joachim Horwath, Founder and CTO of Mynaric. “It is this interoperability combined with the availability of products at scale that will fully unlock the industrial age of laser communications and we are excited about this significant milestone.”

A first round of optical verification tests, conducted at Mynaric’s German facilities, confirmed pointing, acquisition and tracking as well as the communications capabilities of Mynaric’s CONDOR Mk3 product that are required for establishing optical inter-satellite links between satellites.  Subsequent optical interoperability tests, conducted at the Naval Research Lab, successfully demonstrated the product’s capability to optically interconnect with terminals from other vendors.

“This milestone demonstrates that Mynaric can design industry-leading products that meet the SDA’s standards and are fully interoperable with other terminals implementing the same standard,” said Mustafa Veziroglu, CEO of Mynaric. “With this important step completed, we’re on track to start delivering scalable products to our customers. As industry demand continues to increase, we can proudly say that Mynaric is ready to deliver rapidly increasing quantities of CONDOR Mk3 to our customers in the coming months.”