Characterization of a space laser communication terminal’s far-field performance is vital. In this paper,
a new far-field performance measuring system with simple structure is proposed, which can measure
the far-field distribution, the tracking and pointing accuracy, the point ahead angle accuracy and the
co-alignment of the transmit and receive beams. Based on theoretical analyses of the measurements, we
illustrate how to design the practical measuring device. For the problem of locating focal plane of the lens
under non-visible light, we propose a high-precision locating method based on Airy spot image. Several
typical experiments were performed, and the results show that the error on the far-field distribution is less
than 5%, the tracking and pointing accuracy is better than 0.22 rad, and the measurement bandwidth
is 200 Hz. Finally, the error of the measuring system is analyzed and shown to be consistent with the
measured data. The developed measuring system is demonstrated to be a simple but with high-precision
system.