SRC-198

US Air Force Research Laboratory SSPIDR / Arachne programme fact sheet and associated reporting.

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-1452 By our rough arithmetic, the beam of the UK's full-size reference design would carry about a million times more power than the power-beaming tests checked here that have a stated power: a Chinese ground test in 2022 that sent about 2 kilowatts across 55 metres, and two figures of about a kilowatt reported in the press in 2026, one for a Japanese satellite that is planned and not shown to have flown (a Japanese space agency researcher's 2025 lecture shows the same plan) and one for another Chinese ground test. At the design's peak beam strength, such a test could cover less than ten square metres, against tens of square kilometres for the design, so none of these tests comes close to the full-size beam that the worry about disturbing the upper atmosphere concerns. No output power is stated in the documents held here for a third test, a US Air Force flight test that nothing held shows has launched.

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