Telesat is a Canadian satellite communications company and operator, providing connectivity solutions to telecom, government, and enterprise clients globally. They are currently developing Telesat Lightspeed, a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of 198 satellites designed for high-speed, low-latency broadband services. Telesat partners with companies like MDA Space, Orange, and Intellian for satellite manufacturing, terrestrial infrastructure, and user terminals. The company aims to begin launching satellites in 2026, with the constellation fully operational by 2027.
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved a 117-satellite Ka-band system for Telesat in 2017.
Thales Alenia Space planned to provide systems engineering and digital payload expertise for a Telesat LEO effort.
A consortium led by Maxar Technologies and Thales Alenia Space considers the Telesat LEO contract a $3,000,000,000 opportunity.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved another 117-satellite system for Telesat in the V-band in 2018.
Airbus Defence and Space considers the Telesat LEO contract a $3,000,000,000 opportunity.
Telesat LEO is planned as a constellation of around 300 small telecom satellites.
Telesat will decide between Airbus Defence and Space and a Thales Alenia Space–Maxar Technologies team to manufacture its LEO constellation.
New Glenn’s 7-meter fairing provides large mass and volume capabilities intended to match Telesat’s constellation plans and reduce launch costs per satellite.
Telesat is the fifth customer to sign up to use Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn launcher.
Telesat plans to select a satellite manufacturer later 2019 from either Airbus Defence and Space or a team of Thales Alenia Space and Space Systems Loral.
Loon has agreed to deliver a network operating system design that Telesat can use to support its LEO constellation.
Blue Origin signed a multi-launch agreement with Telesat to launch Telesat’s Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation.
Airbus Defence and Space and the Thales Alenia Space–Space Systems Loral team completed systems requirements reviews for Telesat’s constellation on 2019-01-24.
DARPA awarded satellite bus contracts for Blackjack to Airbus, Blue Canyon Technologies, and Telesat.
The Falcon 9 first-stage booster used on the 2019-01-11 mission previously launched in September with Telesat’s Telstar 18 Vantage communications satellite.
Eutelsat has 37 geostationary satellites and Telesat has 17 geostationary satellites, and the two smaller C-Band Alliance members would use capacity on Intelsat and SES satellites to cover for their lost capacity.
Telesat plans to downselect between the Maxar-Thales Alenia Space team and Airbus Defence and Space in the spring of 2019 and has not specified how many of the 300 satellites the winning company will build.
Maxar is on a team with Thales Alenia Space competing to build Telesat’s $3,000,000,000 low-Earth-orbit internet constellation.
Telesat received an earlier DARPA contract on 2018-11-16 worth approximately $550,000 to help DARPA better understand commercial commoditized buses and their mechanical, electrical, and network interfaces.
DARPA chose to include a satellite operator in Blackjack to leverage commercial investment in the Telesat LEO constellation.