Orion is getting an important upgrade for the Artemis III mission, and astronauts on board will get some sort of Wi-Fi connection. NASA is working with SpaceX to equip Orion for Artemis III with a pair of Starlink mini-laser terminals, designed to work over the existing Starlink network.
The two panels will be mounted on the exterior of the Orion spacecraft and will complement the existing communication systems. This capability should provide greater data flow between Orion and the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston, including the possible transmission of high-resolution live video from orbit. The mission is currently planned for the second half of 2027.
SpaceX already has more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit, providing satellite Internet almost worldwide via laptop-sized user terminals. According to NASA, that network uses more than 25,000 low-orbit lasers to keep the satellites in communication with each other and transmit data through the system.
Artemis III gets Starlink laser terminals for faster data transfer and 4K video from space
SpaceX previously demonstrated how Starlink can serve as a communications relay network during the privately funded Fram2 mission, which in 2025 sent humans into polar orbit around Earth for the first time. SpaceX often uses the high data throughput of its network to transmit sharper quality videos of Falcon 9 and Starship launches from orbit.
Artemis III is the third mission in the NASA program aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon and establishing a permanent presence on its surface. This mission is intended as a test flight for the Orion capsule, which will perform a rendezvous and merger with the program’s commercial lunar landers: SpaceX Starship and Blue Origin Blue Moon spacecraft in low Earth orbit.
That’s much closer to Earth than the Artemis II mission, which NASA launched in April of this year. Artemis II was the first flight of the Orion spacecraft with astronauts and lasted 10 days, along a path around the far side of the Moon. NASA also used laser communication technology back then, through the Orion terminal and ground stations at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California and the White Sands Complex in New Mexico.
The laser link was then used to transmit large amounts of data that were too large for NASA’s Near Space and Deep Space radio networks. Since Artemis III remains in low Earth orbit, communication constraints will be much easier to overcome, and the Starlink laser terminals should provide some of the sharpest live views of the Orion spacecraft in space yet, Space writes.