Using a 2-watt laser and a ground system built to fight atmospheric distortion, researchers report a geostationary downlink that outpaced Starlink. At Lijiang Observatory in southwestern China, the signal did not arrive as a neat, steady beam. It came down from a satellite parked about 36,000km above Earth in geostationary orbit, then hit the atmosphere, where shifting air could scatter and defo... [5585 chars]