In the scope of the LOTV concept optical problems have been considered of a laser power transport from an airborne laser, flying at a 10‐kilometer altitude, to a space “tugboat” with a laser propulsion engine (LPE), intended for payload orbital transfer from LEO to GEO. For a transmitter telescope size of 1–1.5 m the range of optimal sizes of a receiver collector as well as the range of optimal specific impulses of LPE have been determined for the radiation wavelength of 0.5 &mgr; and 1 &mgr;, and payloads of 3–5 t. The optimization was carried out by searching a trade‐off between propellant mass saving and the orbit transfer time reduction. © 2004 American Institute of Physics