NASA has successfully completed the primary phase of an experimental communications mission designed to help spacecraft connect through multiple satellite networks. Following the achievement of its core goals, the agency is extending the project to explore new partnerships and demonstrate additional capabilities through April 2027.
Known as the Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT), the technology is intended to improve interoperability between different satellite communications systems. By allowing missions to work across multiple networks, PExT could help make future space communications more flexible and resilient.
Testing Multi Network Space Communications
PExT launched on July 23, 2025, aboard York Space Systems’ BARD spacecraft. The mission was created to show how wideband communications technology can allow spacecraft to transmit data through both government and commercial relay networks.
Traditionally, spacecraft communications have been tied to a single network. PExT takes a different approach by using the widely adopted Ka-band spectrum, enabling data to move across multiple satellite systems.
The project’s primary objectives were completed in December 2025. During those tests, the terminal successfully transmitted data to Earth through NASA’s Tracking and Relay Satellite system as well as commercial networks operated by Viasat and SES Space and Defense.
Following that success, NASA began an extended operations phase in January 2026.
New Direct to Earth Demonstrations
The next stage of the mission includes testing direct communications links between the spacecraft and Earth using SSC Space’s worldwide ground station network.
As part of this effort, the demonstration is expected to complete more than 50 direct connections with Earth through SSC Space’s partner ground station in Weilheim, Germany.
These tests are designed to show how future missions could route data through relay satellites when needed or communicate directly with ground stations. Such flexibility could improve coverage, strengthen reliability, and increase operational efficiency.
Advanced Software for Space Network Management
NASA is also working with Aalyria Technologies to demonstrate enterprise service operations using the company’s Spacetime software platform.
Enterprise service management provides a coordinated way to plan, manage, and deliver communications services for multiple missions through a shared software framework. NASA hopes to show that this approach can simplify operations, improve visibility into available services, and help ensure reliable communications support throughout a mission’s lifetime.
The effort builds on several years of collaboration between Aalyria and the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit through the Hybrid Space Architecture program. The initiative, led by the U.S. Department of War, seeks to create a more connected and interoperable space communications ecosystem where government and commercial satellite systems can work together seamlessly.
Through its participation, NASA is benefiting from investments made to advance the Spacetime framework while also building on earlier work conducted through the agency’s NextSTEP-2 program.
Supporting Future NASA Missions
The project is funded and managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Beyond the current demonstrations, the work supports NASA’s broader effort to develop and validate commercial communications architectures that could support missions in low Earth orbit and eventually farther into space.
