down·link
ˈdau̇n-ˌliŋk 
: a communications channel for receiving transmissions from a spacecraft
also
: such transmissions
downlinked; downlinking; downlinks
: to transmit (data) from a spacecraft or satellite to a receiver on earth
Examples of downlink in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
George Petras, USA TODAY, 19 Mar. 2024
There’s always that piece in the back of your head that’s getting ready every downlink—today could be the last day, today could be the last day.
—IEEE Spectrum, 26 Jan. 2024
Canceling the requests before a response is written reduces downlink (server/proxy to attacker) bandwidth.
—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 13 Oct. 2023
So the telescope was equipped with two downlinks, one via the commercial satellite communication system, Starlink, and the other via NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).
—Discover Magazine, 17 Nov. 2023
The tissue box-size satellite provides 200-gigabit-per-second data downlinks, which is the highest optical rate yet achieved by NASA.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 9 May 2023
But the complexity involved in synchronizing the uplink and downlink was too high.
—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Oct. 2019
The downlink was even more energy efficient, at just 34 femtojoules per bit.
—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Mar. 2023
GHGSat has also squeezed a potentially game-changing system onto Iris’s microwave-sized platform: an optical communications downlink, which is virtually nonexistent on large commercial satellites and will be a first for a microsat.
—IEEE Spectrum, 14 Mar. 2023
Mika McKinnon, Discover Magazine, 14 Sep. 2017
The spacecraft was launched from Florida last month and images from this week’s deployment sequence were downlinked from the orbiter by flight controllers at California Polytechnic State University , San Luis Obispo.
—Washington Post, 26 July 2019
While all of the data from the recorders will be downlinked during the flight, the team needs to be able to recover at least one data recorder to provide a full backup if data is lost.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 2 July 2019
Those video files will be downlinked for Micro 11’s investigator study.
—Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 16 July 2018
The space telescope will fly in a large ellipse that takes it out beyond the moon and then in close to the Earth to downlink its data.
—Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 18 Apr. 2018
The first science data, post-flyby, is expected to start downlinking to Earth on July 15, including imaging.
—John Wenz, Popular Mechanics, 6 July 2015
Space felt a little closer to home at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables as Miami students participated in a live question and answer downlink with two astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station(ISS).
—David Aaro, miamiherald, 30 Apr. 2018
While the photos were successful, the astronauts found themselves in the unusual position of having no one to downlink their photo data.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 28 Aug. 2017
Noun
The memory also contains science or engineering data for downlink, NASA says.
—George Petras, USA TODAY, 19 Mar. 2024
There’s always that piece in the back of your head that’s getting ready every downlink—today could be the last day, today could be the last day.
—IEEE Spectrum, 26 Jan. 2024
Canceling the requests before a response is written reduces downlink (server/proxy to attacker) bandwidth.
—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 13 Oct. 2023
So the telescope was equipped with two downlinks, one via the commercial satellite communication system, Starlink, and the other via NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS).
—Discover Magazine, 17 Nov. 2023
The tissue box-size satellite provides 200-gigabit-per-second data downlinks, which is the highest optical rate yet achieved by NASA.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 9 May 2023
But the complexity involved in synchronizing the uplink and downlink was too high.
—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Oct. 2019
The downlink was even more energy efficient, at just 34 femtojoules per bit.
—IEEE Spectrum, 8 Mar. 2023
GHGSat has also squeezed a potentially game-changing system onto Iris’s microwave-sized platform: an optical communications downlink, which is virtually nonexistent on large commercial satellites and will be a first for a microsat.
—IEEE Spectrum, 14 Mar. 2023
Verb
The spacecraft will align its antenna with Earth and downlink the photographs via the Deep Space Network.
—Mika McKinnon, Discover Magazine, 14 Sep. 2017
The spacecraft was launched from Florida last month and images from this week’s deployment sequence were downlinked from the orbiter by flight controllers at California Polytechnic State University , San Luis Obispo.
—Washington Post, 26 July 2019
While all of the data from the recorders will be downlinked during the flight, the team needs to be able to recover at least one data recorder to provide a full backup if data is lost.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 2 July 2019
Those video files will be downlinked for Micro 11’s investigator study.
—Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 16 July 2018
The space telescope will fly in a large ellipse that takes it out beyond the moon and then in close to the Earth to downlink its data.
—Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics, 18 Apr. 2018
The first science data, post-flyby, is expected to start downlinking to Earth on July 15, including imaging.
—John Wenz, Popular Mechanics, 6 July 2015
Space felt a little closer to home at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables as Miami students participated in a live question and answer downlink with two astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station(ISS).
—David Aaro, miamiherald, 30 Apr. 2018
While the photos were successful, the astronauts found themselves in the unusual position of having no one to downlink their photo data.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 28 Aug. 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'downlink.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near downlink
Cite this Entry
“Downlink.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/downlink. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share