NASA’s Polylingual Experimental Terminal (PExT), designed to empower interoperability between satellite relay networks, has completed its planned technology demonstration. Due to the success of the primary mission and the flexible nature of this technology, NASA has extended operations for new partnership opportunities and capability demonstrations.

Return link using SSC Space ground network

Building on successful on-orbit testing, new operations include demonstrating direct-to-Earth forward and return links using the SSC Space global ground station network.  PExT will complete over 50 direct links to Earth via SSC Space’s partner ground station in Weilheim, Germany. Demonstrating direct-to-Earth links shows how missions can flexibly route data, either through relay satellites or directly to ground stations, improving resilience, coverage, and operational efficiency.

Previously, satellite communications were predominantly limited to a single network. PExT operates across a broad portion of the Ka-band spectrum, widely used by NASA and industry, enabling data transfers with multiple different satellite systems.

Primary mission objectives were completed in December 2025, when PExT successfully sent data to Earth through NASA’s Tracking and Relay Satellite system and commercial networks operated by Viasat and SES Space and Defense. Extended mission operations began in January and will continue through April 2027.

Funded and managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program in partnership with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the PExT demonstration supports NASA’s broader strategy to mature and validate commercial communications architecture for missions in low Earth orbit and beyond.

Read more: First-ever wideband polylingual direct-to-Earth demonstration

Media assets (courtesy of NASA): https://sscspace.canto.global/b/NQ54B

Read more NASA Wideband Demo Completes Primary Mission, Extends Operations   – NASA