Canada’s Telesat joins hands with SpaceX to launch broadband satellites: Report

On Monday, Canada’s Telesat said that it had reached a deal with SpaceX to begin launching its low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites in 2026, with the intention of offering international internet access from space by the end of 2027.

Since LEO satellites orbit 36 times closer to Earth than conventional ones, information is transmitted and received more quickly, improving broadband coverage even in remote locations.

The LEO constellation launched by Telesat is named Lightspeed.

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“It is another big step forward on our path to get Lightspeed up there,” Reuters quoted Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg as saying.

The deal, which covers 14 launches, was not valued. According to the firm, the constellation will be deployed by the end of 2027, when Telesat intends to offer a global service. Each Falcon 9 rocket will be able to launch up to 18 satellites into orbit. This comes three years after the original deadline.

Telesat’s stock declined 5.3 per cent to Canadian $21.99 ($16.20), following an early trade gain of about 3.2 per cent.

Last month, Telesat said that by hiring Canada’s MDA Ltd to construct 198 satellites, it would save $2 billion. Thales Alenia Space received the contract in 2021.

Thales informed Telesat roughly two years ago that it could no longer match with the agreed price and timetable due to “COVID hit, and supply chain issues hit, and inflation hit,” Reuters cited Goldberg.

The 14 launches will be carried out by SpaceX, which “gives us scope to expand the constellation above and beyond the 198 (satellites) that we've committed to with MDA,” Goldberg told Reuters.

With the goal of serving corporate customers, such as mobile operators, governments, aircraft and shipping corporations, Telesat is entering the competitive new world of LEO networks.

The majority of the LEO competition, which also includes Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and its Project Kuiper and SpaceX’s Starlink network, is geared at the consumer market.

Large bulk launch contracts like Telesat’s SpaceX contract have significantly reduced the U.S. launch supply in recent years due to satellite constellations.

The largest commercial launch contract in history was won by Amazon in 2022 for 83 missions across different launch firms to deploy its Kuiper network. With the aid of its expanding Starlink constellation, SpaceX hopes to roughly double its current yearly launch rate by 2023.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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