How many independent demonstrations of optical communications between ground and space have been successful?

Question

As everybody knows, the pioneering work of The Professor and his serendipitous collaborator Gilligan demonstrated the reality of ground to space optical communications back in 1964. In that case information was encoded in the incandescent radtaion of soot particles via spatial modulation¹ rather than the more modern temporal modulation.

The launch of this crewed and remarkable mission can be seen here.

Questinon: Since that "fateful trip", how many independent demonstrations of optical communications between ground and space have been successful?

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¹ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0588095/mediaviewer/rm2807151617

Answer 1

Probably the first and only ground to space optical communications experiment with an object on the lunar surface was a laser communication line with Lunokhod-2.

"Эта же наземная аппаратура была использована для эксперимента по исследованию возможности передачи информации методом время-импульсной модуляции по оптическому каналу связи Алма-Ата - "Луноход-2". Объект использовался для ретрансляции сигналов на Землю по радиоканалу. Пропускная способность данной линии связи равна 15 дв.зн/сек."

The same ground-based equipment was used for an experiment to study the possibility of transmitting information by the method of time-pulse modulation over the optical communication channel Alma-Ata - Lunokhod-2. The object was used to relay signals to Earth via a radio channel. The throughput of this communication line is 15 two-digit characters per second. http://russianspacesystems.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1973_Radiotekhnicheskiy_kompleks_Luna21_Lunokhod_2.pdf

Answer 2

Quite a few. Indeed the first ever use of lasercom space-to-ground was in 1994. This was achieved by Japan’s 1-Mb/s laser link to ground from the ETS-VI satellite in GEO.

Here are some state-sponsored missions, achieved as well as planned. Source: Development Current Status and Trend Analysis of Satellite Laser Communication

State/ organization	Terminal name	Launch time	Major institutions	Communication distance	Communication wavelength	Communication rate
USA	GOLD	1995	NASA JPL	GEO→GND	830 nm（downlink）	1.024 Mbps@PPM（downlink）
USA	GOLD	1995	NASA JPL	GEO→GND	514.5 nm（uplink）	1.024 Mbps（uplink）
USA	GeoLITE	2001	MIT LL	GEO→GND	/	/
USA	LRO	2013	NASA GSFC	Lunar→GND	1064.3 nm（downlink）	300 bps@PPM（downlink）
USA	LLCD	2013	NASA GSFC	Lunar→GND	1550 nm（downlink）1558 nm（uplink）	622 Mbps@PPM（downlink）
USA	LLCD	2013	NASA GSFC	Lunar→GND	1550 nm（downlink）1558 nm（uplink）	20 Mbps@PPM（uplink）
USA	OPALS	2014	NASA JPL	ISS→GND	1550 nm（downlink）	30~50 Mbps@IM/DD（downlink）
USA	OCSD-B	2018	NASA	LEO→GND	1064 nm（downlink）	50 Mbps/100Mbps@IM/DD（downlink）
USA	LCRD	2021	NASA GSFC	GEO→GND	1550 nm（duplex）	2.88 Gbps@DPSK（duplex）
USA	LCRD	2021	NASA GSFC	GEO→GND	1550 nm（duplex）	622 Mbps@PPM（duplex）
USA	ILLUMA-T	2022	NASA GSFC	LEO→GEO	1550 nm（duplex）	1.244 Gbps@DPSK（return link)
USA	ILLUMA-T	2022	NASA GSFC	LEO→GEO	1550 nm（duplex）	51 Mbps（forward link）
USA	TBIRD	2022	NASA MIT	LEO→GND	1550 nm（downlink）	200 Gbps（downlink）
USA	TBIRD	2022	NASA MIT	LEO→GND	1550 nm（downlink）	5 kbps@PPM（uplink）
USA	O2O	2023	NASA JPL	Lunar→GND	1550 nm（downlink）	80 Mbps@PPM（downlink）
USA	O2O	2023	NASA JPL	Lunar→GND	1550 nm（downlink）	20 Mbps（uplink）
USA	DSOC	2022	NASA JPL	Mars→GND	1550 nm（downlink）1060 nm（uplink）	264 Mbps@PPM（downlink）
USA	DSOC	2022	NASA JPL	Mars→GND	1550 nm（downlink）1060 nm（uplink）	2 kbps（uplink）
USA	LOCNESS	2025	NASA GSFC	GEO→GEO	/	100 Gbps（GEO→GEO/GND）
USA	LOCNESS	2025	NASA GSFC	GEO→GND	/	10 Gbps（GEO→LEO）
USA	LOCNESS	2025	NASA GSFC	GEO→LEO	/
Europe	SILEX	2001	ESA	LEO→GEO	847 nm（LEO）	50 Mbps@IM/DD（LEO）
Europe	SILEX	2001	ESA	GEO→GND	819 nm（GEO）	2 Mbps@PPM（GEO）
Europe	TerraSAR→X	2008	DLR	LEO→LEO	1064 nm（duplex）	5.6 Gbps@BPSK（duplex）
Europe	EDRS-A	2016	ESA	GEO→GEO	1064 nm（duplex）	1.8 Gbps@BPSK（duplex）
Europe	EDRS-A	2016	ESA	GEO→LEO	1064 nm（duplex）	1.8 Gbps@BPSK（duplex）
Europe	EDRS-C	2019	ESA	GEO→GEO	1064 nm（duplex）	1.8 Gbps@BPSK（duplex）
Europe	OPTEL-μ	2018	RUAG	LEO→GND	1550 nm	2.5 Gbps@IM/DD（downlink）
Europe	OSIRISv3/4	2020	DLR	LEO→GND	1500 nm	10 Gbps@IM/DD（downlink）
Europe	EDRS-D	2025	ESA	GEO→GEO	1064 nm/1550 nm（duplex）	3.6 Gbps~10Gbps@BPSK（duplex）
Europe	HydRON	2025	ESA	GEO→LEO	1064 nm/1550 nm	100 Gbps
Europe	HydRON	2025	ESA	GEO→GND	1064 nm/1550 nm	100 Gbps
Japan	ETS-VI	1994	NICT	GEO→GND	830 nm（downlink）	1.024 Mbps@PPM（downlink）
Japan	ETS-VI	1994	NICT	GEO→GND	514.5 nm（uplink）	1.024Mbps（uplink）
Japan	OICETS	2006	JAXA/NICT	LEO→GND	847 nm（downlink）	49.3724 Mbps@NRZ（downlink）
Japan	OICETS	2006	JAXA/NICT	LEO→GND	815 nm（uplink）	2.048 Mbps@PPM（uplink）
Japan	SOTA	2014	NICT	LEO→ GND	980/1550 nm（downlink）	1 Mbps~10 Mbps@OOK（downlink）
Japan	VSOTA	2019	NICT	LEO→GND	980/1550 nm（downlink）	1 kbps~1 Mbps@OOK/PPM（downlink）
Japan	JDRS	2020	JAXA/ NICT	GEO→LEO	1540 nm（return link）	1.8 Gbps@RZ→DPSK (return link)
Japan	JDRS	2020	JAXA/ NICT	GEO→LEO	1560 nm（forward link）	50 Mbps@IM/DD（forward link）
Japan	HICALI	2021	NICT	GEO→GND	1500 nm（downlink）	10 Gbps@DPSK（downlink）

Answer 3

Laser communication in space is the use of free-space optical communication in outer space. Communication may be fully in space (an inter-satellite laser link) or in a ground-to-satellite or satellite-to-ground application.

The main advantage of using laser communication over radio waves is increased bandwidth, enabling the transfer of more data in less time.

In November 2014, the first-ever use of gigabit laser-based communication as part of the European Data Relay System (EDRS) was carried out. Further system and operational service demonstrations were carried out in 2014. Data from the EU Sentinel-1A satellite in LEO was transmitted via an optical link to the ESA-Inmarsat Alphasat in GEO and then relayed to a ground station using a conventional Ka-band downlink. The new system can offer speeds up to 7.2 Gbit/s.The Laser terminal on Alphasat is called TDP-1 and is still regularly used for tests. The first EDRS terminal (EDRS-A) for productive use has been launched as a payload on the Eutelsat EB9B spacecraft and became active in December 2016. It routinely downloads high-volume data from the Sentinel 1A/B and Sentinel 2A/B spacecraft to the ground.

So far (April 2019) more than 20000 links (11 PBit) have been performed.

This Wikipedia gives more answers: Laser Communication in Space