A laser relay module for free space optical communications including an optical telescope for receiving and transmitting optical beams; an optical diplexer for separating transmitting and received optical beams; an optical amplifier; a modulated beacon laser for line of sight control of a plurality of communicating remote network nodes; a beacon beam detector for detecting an incoming beacon optical beam for line of sight control of the optical telescope and receiving data from other network nodes; and means for inserting an output of the modulated beacon laser into the optical telescope for transmission to another network node, and for transporting the incoming beacon optical beam to the beacon detector.