Systems and methods for controlling uplink power in a non-terrestrial network (NTN). An NTN station transmits a reference signal at a first time having a defined transmission power and the reference signal is received by non-terrestrial user equipment. The user equipment evaluates the reference signal and determines a first downlink loss of the reference signal by calculating a difference between a measured power level of the received reference signal and the defined transmission power. The NTN station transmits a communication signal at a second time and is received by the user equipment, which estimates a second downlink loss of the communication signal based on the first downlink loss and a power level of the communication signal. A first uplink loss is estimated based on the second downlink loss, and the user equipment adjusts a transmission power of its transmitter based on the first uplink loss.