Xenesis

Xenesis was founded in 2017 by Mark LaPenna, who had previously run an aircraft-tracking data company. Realizing that growing volumes of satellite data could not be economically transmitted over traditional RF links, LaPenna licensed a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory laser transceiver design and pivoted the company into laser (optical) satellite communications.

The company builds a two-sided optical communications system: the Xen-Hub, a space-qualified optical flight terminal capable of >10 Gbps full-duplex data rates, and the Xen-Node, a ground-based optical terminal built around a high-precision Dall-Kirkham telescope. Together these form Xen-Link, an end-to-end optical data relay service pitched as a pay-as-you-go alternative to owning RF ground infrastructure.

Xenesis has worked with partners including Georgia Tech (miniaturization/space-qualification of the Xen-Hub transceiver, 2018), Airbus (a Xen-Hub demonstration payload on the ISS Bartolomeo platform, 2020), ATLAS Space Operations and Laser Light Communications (the Empower Space Alliance joint venture), Space Micro Inc./Voyager Space (manufacturing partner), and the U.S. Space Development Agency, which has awarded Xenesis Phase 1 and Phase 2 contracts for adaptable optical satellite terminal concepts based on the Xen-Hub.

The company's long-term roadmap centers on Intercessor, a planned multi-constellation network of satellites paired with optical ground stations across underserved regions intended to provide globally meshed, multi-terabit optical connectivity.