Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat has formally advised the Federal Communications Commission that it wants to reduce the size of its proposed Liightspeed low Earth orbiting fleet from 1,671 craft to 300. The major change is that Telesat will orbit the Lightspeed fleet in higher orbital altitudes. The initial ‘Shell 1’ launches were due to comprise […]

California-based satellite operator Viasat, which already has agreements in place with the likes of Eutelsat’s OneWeb, has added Telesat’s Lightspeed to its supply of low Earth orbiting options. Lightspeed is a proposed constellation of almost 200 satellites which will start being launched in mid-2026. The agreement struck with Telesat is for Viasat to access Lightspeed’s […]

Orange and Telesat have partnered to offer new satellite connectivity options through a strategic commercial partnership. Under the agreement, a Telesat Lightspeed Landing Station will be hosted at Orange’s teleport in Bercenay-en-Othe, France, and benefit from ground segment connectivity with their point of presence (PoP) located in Paris over Orange Wholesale International Private Line (IPL). […]

Telesat and Intellian, a provider of satellite communication antennas and ground gateway solutions, have announced a contract award for Intellian to design and manufacture Ka-band flat panel User Terminals for the Telesat Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. Under this agreement, fully optimised Ka-band LEO flat panels for the Telesat Lightspeed network are being designed […]

Satellite operator Telesat has announced that Michel Forest will be its new Chief Technology Officer following the retirement of David Wendling at the end of February 2025. In this role, Forest will report to Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s President and CEO, and oversee Telesat’s satellite operations, satellite and systems engineering, launch activities and programme management. Serving […]

The Canadian government has announced a loan of C$2.14 billion (€1.42bn) to satellite operator Telesat to help the company build its broadband satellite constellation in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as Canada’s largest ever space programme. Trudeau said the Telesat Lightspeed constellation will enable people in the most remote parts of the country, including […]

The Canadian-based Kepler mega-constellation has been working with a pair of prototype ‘pathfinder’ craft operating in low Earth orbit in order to prove its system, and has released data which shows how powerful the concept could be. Mina Mitry, Kepler’s CEO, said it had moved terabytes of data across its pair of demo-craft and extensively […]

Ottawa-based Telesat’s planned Lightspeed low Earth orbiting mega-constellation is moving ahead. MDA, which is the prime contractor on the project, has selected Germany-based Tesat-Spacecom to manufacture 792 laser terminals for the 198-satellite system. Tesat is an independent operating subsidiary of Airbus Defense & Space. Earlier this year Tesat announced that it was expanding its factory […]

Ottawa-based geostationary satellite operator Telesat reported an underwhelming set of Q1 numbers. Every key metric showed a decline in revenues. Overall revenue was down a worrying 17 per cent year-on-year to C$152 million (€103.1m) for the three months to March 31st. “The decrease was primarily due to a reduction of services and lower rate on […]

Ottawa-based satellite operator Telesat’s CEO Dan Goldberg told delegates to the Washington Satellite 2024 event that Telesat was not restricting its ambitions to the 198-craft Lightspeed mega-constellation of low Earth orbiting satellites. “Is 198 satellites enough? Yes, certainly to get started,” Goldberg stated. “With 198 satellites we’ll have terabytes and terabytes of fully global, highly […]