TAMPA, Fla. — Apolink has made contact with its first satellite after launching on SpaceX’s July 7 rideshare mission, clearing the way for a data relay demonstration using a novel experimental license from the Federal Communications Commission.

“We’ve got a first-of-its-kind experimental license for S-band inter-satellite link operations from the FCC,” Apolink CEO Onkar Batra told SpaceNews, enabling the IPoS-TDsM cubesat to receive signals from other satellites in low Earth orbit.

The license clears the 3U cubesat to receive S-band signals from designated partner satellites on an unprotected and non-interference basis, before storing and forwarding them to approved ground stations.