Lightspeed is the 198 craft broadband-by-satellite scheme from Telesat of Canada. The company has outlined what it sees as the system’s key advantages, not least flying higher than the “congested” lower Earth orbits of rivals. Lightspeed has been in the planning and quotation stage for a couple of years but back in August Telesat confirmed […]

SpaceX has won a 14-launch order from Telesat to place its Lightspeed constellation into low Earth orbit (LEO). Terms were not disclosed, but the multi-launch contract could easily be worth more than $800 million (€746.6m). Each SpaceX rocket will carry up to 18 Telesat Lightspeed satellites to LEO per launch. The launch campaign is scheduled […]

Ottawa-based Telesat’s recent announcement that it had awarded a 198-craft order with fellow Canadian satellite builder MDA caused considerable surprise with the former Prime Contractor and favoured supplier Thales Alenia Space. By any measure, Telesat’s challenges with the Lightspeed constellation over the past few years has been to overcome some major bumps in the road, […]

Comments from satellite builder Thales Group’s chief Executive Patrice Caine suggests that Canada-based Telesat’s potential contract for its $5 billion (€4.5bn) order for a fleet of 198 low Earth orbiting satellites is still very much active. The comments come because Telesat has been slow to confirm any sort of order and has taken some considerable […]

Telesat has used RocketLab to launch its LEO 3 prototype satellite. The craft is a demonstrator for a proposed 200 satellite mega-constellation, called Lightspeed. The LEO 3 demonstration satellite will provide continuity for customer and ecosystem vendor testing campaigns following the decommissioning of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite. Once deployed to orbit, LEO 3 will […]

The Board of trade body The Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA) has announced the election of Telesat’s CEO Dan Goldberg as its new Chair. Eva Berneke, CEO of Eutelsat was also elected co-Vice Chair, alongside Ali Al Hashemi, CEO of Yahsat, who was appointed earlier in 2023. Following the recent combination with Global VSAT Forum […]

A report from analysts at Northern Sky Research (NSR) titled The Rise of Constellations reminds NSR clients that the emergence on non-Geostationary satellites is dramatically changing the satellite industry. NSR says: “Starlink, OneWeb & mPower are in their advanced stages, and upcoming constellations such as Kuiper, Telesat and others are deploying or planning to deploy […]

Telesat has announced a contract award to Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) of Toronto, Canada to manufacture a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) demonstration satellite. The demonstration satellite, named LEO 3, will provide continuity for customer and ecosystem vendor testing campaigns following the decommissioning of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite. Once successfully launched and on-station, LEO 3 […]

Canada-based satellite operator Telesat, which operates the Anik, Nimiq and Telstar satellites, failed to give investors or analysts any good news on its proposed $5 billion Lightspeed low Earth orbiting broadband fleet. In fact, the news was depressing given the frequent past promises and assurances that all was well with the project. Telesat President/CEO Dan […]

Telesat’s president/CEO Dan Goldberg, in a March 29th investor call, insisted that the Canadian satellite operator was still spending cash on planning and development of its Lightspeed mega-constellation of 200 satellites. Goldberg added that the business demand for Lightspeed was a strong as ever. Goldberg told analysts that Telesat was still confident of the project […]