TAMPA, Fla. — Telesat has the funding to maneuver forward with plans for a low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband network after saving $2 billion by pivoting to smaller satellites from MDA following production delays at Thales Alenia Space, the Canadian operator said Aug. 11.
MDA is constructing 198 satellites for Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation under a contract value 2.1 billion Canadian dollars ($1.6 billion), with launches slated to begin in the course of mid-2026.
Weighing 750 kilograms each, Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said the satellites are 75% smaller than earlier versions planned by Thales Alenia Space, but would have the identical performance by utilizing digital beam-forming array antennas as a substitute of the analog terminals MDA was resulting from supply as a subcontractor.
Goldberg said Telesat has funding commitments for the 156 satellites it might need to supply initial polar and global services from late 2027.
The additional 42 satellites to finish the constellation could be funded through revenues Telesat expects to realize from providing initial services to enterprise and government customers.
Telesat expects the entire cost for 156 satellites to be around $3.5 billion, when factoring in launches and other expenses, including the bottom systems and user terminal technology that might even be used for the 42 follow-on satellites.
Around $1.6 billion of this cost could be funded by Telesat equity, Goldberg said throughout the company’s earnings call, and $2 billion would come from Canadian federal and provincial financing.
The operator also has “some a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of dollars” in financing from an undisclosed vendor that he said was not MDA.
The MDA contract includes options for an extra 100 satellites to expand the constellation to 298 satellites.
Telesat initially planned to launch 298 satellites in 2020 for business services starting in 2021.
Nevertheless, the corporate held off picking a chief contractor until 2021 to get a greater deal on parts, just for Europe’s Thales Alenia Space to run into pandemic-related supply chain issues that led to the constellation being downsized a 12 months later to 198 satellites.
“It’s been a protracted road, Goldberg said throughout the earnings call, “Covid and the provision chain constraints and inflation that Covid brought represented real obstacles.”
Glenn Katz, Telesat’s chief business officer, told the corporate has contracted all of the launch vehicles required to finish the 198-satellite constellation, but declined to reveal details.
The corporate has previously announced plans to make use of rockets still under development by Blue Origin and Relativity Space.
Design changes
Goldberg said throughout the earnings call that Telesat had passed on a possibility years ago to make use of MDA’s digital beam-forming technology since the technology was too immature.
Nevertheless, following further investment by MDA, “we got here to the conclusion that it was now sufficiently mature,” he said “and that not only could we leverage it but that we needed to, given the huge efficiencies it delivers.”
Integrated with digital processors, he said the technology enables Telesat to triple the variety of beams per satellite, while improving link performance and the general efficiency of the planned network.
While the old satellite design required each satellite to have two pairs of analog beam-forming antennas, he said only a single pair of digital antennas could be required to deliver Telesat’s capability goal.
He said this permits the satellites to be smaller while enabling the identical amount of performance for the constellation, around 10 terabits per second (Tbps) of capability. The design life for every satellite also stays unchanged at 11 years.
Telesat originally aimed to supply 15 Tbps with earlier plans for a 298-strong constellation.
But while Telesat had announced it chosen Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the constellation, the businesses didn’t have a producing contract in place.
Telesat will as a substitute be the anchor customer for MDA’s software-defined configurable satellite design, MDA CEO Mike Greenley said Aug. 11 throughout the company’s separate earnings call.
Greenley said MDA’s high-volume manufacturing facilities in Montreal could churn out two satellites a day after getting in control, “helping dramatically to scale back production costs and schedules for our customers.”
While Telesat is the inaugural customer for the corporate’s integrated digital satellite product, MDA vp of corporate communications Amy Macleod said the foundational technologies have previously flown in space.
It’s MDA’s second contract for a LEO constellation in 18 months after Globalstar picked the corporate last 12 months to construct its Apple-backed third-generation satellites.
Katz said Telesat has reached a spectrum coordination agreement with SpaceX’s Starlink LEO network for its revised constellation, and has one other in place for the LEO satellites Amazon is planning for Project Kuiper. Spectrum coordination talks are ongoing with British LEO broadband operator OneWeb.
Telesat’s LEO deployment delays mean the corporate might want to secure regulatory extensions to retain its priority Ka-band spectrum rights, and Katz said the corporate recently filed for one from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an affiliate of the United Nations.
Government-funding commitments for Lightspeed are also subject to due diligence and the conclusion of definitive agreements that the corporate expects to wrap up later this 12 months.
The money Telesat is injecting into the constellation includes nearly $350 million Canadian dollars it’s resulting from get in December from clearing C-band spectrum in the US for terrestrial 5G telcos.
Financials
Telesat is targeting a 30% return on investment from Lightspeed, which is in search of a slice of an enterprise and government connectivity market the corporate estimates could be value about 200 billion dollars around 2025.
The corporate reported revenues of 180 million Canadian dollars for the three months ended June 30, down 6% compared with the identical period last 12 months when adjusted for changes in foreign exchange rates.
The decrease was partly driven by a discount in revenues from one in every of Telesat’s satellite TV broadcast customers in North America.
Nevertheless, Telesat said a rise in revenue from LEO satellite-to-satellite communications work with NASA helped partially offset its overall sales decline.
Adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, fell 8% to 139 million Canadian dollars.
Rocket Lab launched the newest prototype for Lightspeed July 17 after LEO 1, which launched in 2018, ran out of fuel amid the constellation’s protracted delays.