China’s 2026 moon laser communication speed is slower than Nasa’s in 2013
China has successfully demonstrated two-way laser communication with the moon, though its data transmission speeds remain significantly lower than those achieved by NASA in 2013. Experts are analyzing the performance gap as both nations prepare for future lunar missions.
Why it matters
The comparison highlights the competitive nature of the current space race and the technological benchmarks required for long-term lunar presence.
China has pulled off two-way laser communication between Earth and the moon, making it only the second nation after the United States to do so. But the data rates it achieved were well behind those recorded by Nasa more than a decade ago, and that has left space experts scratching their heads.
Using telescopes in Yunnan province and an experimental satellite that is now orbiting the moon after a launch mishap in 2024, the team recorded a downlink speed of 100 megabits per second and an uplink speed of 1.25Mbps, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which led the project.
By contrast, Nasa’s 2013 lunar laser communications demonstration achieved download speeds of 622Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps – roughly six times faster for downloads and 16 times faster for uploads.
Jonathan McDowell, a London-based space historian and former Harvard astronomer, said the Chinese and US experiments were comparable.
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