Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage and growth-stage investments across various sectors, including enterprise, fintech, consumer, and healthcare. While not exclusively focused on space, Lightspeed has demonstrated interest in the space industry through investments in companies like Vector, a revolutionary launch platform for small satellites. The firm manages approximately $25 billion in assets and has offices in multiple locations including Menlo Park, California, and internationally.
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Telesat contracted 14 launches from SpaceX starting in mid-2026 to deploy its entire Lightspeed broadband constellation within a year.
Telesat is positioned to begin delivering enterprise-class connectivity from Lightspeed in late 2027.
MDA will build a digital beam-forming antenna, the spacecraft bus, and an onboard processor of its own design for Lightspeed rather than leveraging Thales Alenia Space’s antenna design.
Lightspeed will be deployed from SpaceX launch facilities in California and Florida.
Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg expects mass production of MDA-built Lightspeed satellites to begin in the middle of the second half of 2025.
MDA is attempting to procure 800 optical terminals for the Lightspeed constellation.
Approximately $1,600,000,000 of the total $3,500,000,000 cost for an initial 156 Lightspeed satellites is being funded via Telesat equity, with the remainder coming from Canadian federal and provincial financing commitments.
MDA contracted on 2023-08-11 to deliver 198 satellites for Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation with launches starting in mid-2026.
Telesat intends to use its C-band incentive proceeds to help fund its proposed Lightspeed low Earth orbit constellation.
The MDA contract for Lightspeed includes options for an additional 100 satellites to expand the constellation to 298 satellites.
Launches for the MDA-built Lightspeed satellites are slated to start in the middle of 2026.
Telesat has contracted all the launch vehicles required to complete the 198-satellite Lightspeed constellation.
The revised Lightspeed constellation is designed to deliver around 10 terabits per second of capacity.
Telesat has previously announced plans to use rockets still under development by Blue Origin and Relativity Space for Lightspeed launches.
The 750-kilogram Lightspeed satellites are 75% smaller than earlier versions planned by Thales Alenia Space.
The first Lightspeed prototype, LEO 1, launched in 2018 and ran out of fuel amid constellation delays.
Rocket Lab launched the latest Lightspeed prototype on 2023-07-17.
MDA is building 198 satellites for Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation under a contract worth 2.1 billion Canadian dollars.
Telesat expects to start deploying full-size Lightspeed satellites around 2026, six years later than originally planned.
LEO 3 will allow Telesat to continue tests for its future Lightspeed constellation that had been performed with another prototype nearing the end of its life.