MDA to Produce Telesat’s State-of-the-Art Lightspeed LEO Satellites

Satellite operator Telesat has announced that space technology company MDA will be building 198 advanced satellites for Telesat’s Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) programme.

Telesat says Lightspeed is now fully funded through global service delivery taking into account the company’s own equity contribution, certain vendor financing and aggregate funding commitments from its Canadian federal and provincial government partners.

According to Telesat, MDA’s industry-leading digital beamforming array antennas and integrated regenerative processor will enable the re-designed Telesat Lightspeed network achieve increased network efficiency and enhanced flexibility to focus and dynamically deliver capacity to users, allowing each satellite to be slightly smaller than the satellites Telesat was previously considering while still maintaining the highest levels of service performance, resiliency and overall usable capacity in the network.

Total capital cost savings for the 198-satellite programme will be approximately US$2 billion compared to Telesat’s prior capital estimate.

Telesat has confirmed that the Lightspeed programme begins immediately, with satellite launches scheduled to start in mid-2026 and polar and global services in late 2027.

Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat commented: “I’m incredibly proud of the Telesat team for their innovative work to further optimise our Telesat Lightspeed design – which was already a highly advanced and high performing LEO network – resulting in dramatically reduced costs with unmatched enterprise-class service offerings.

“MDA is a world class satellite prime contractor with an impressive track record and a number of recent high profile, strategic space programmes announced, and it is a privilege to be working side-by-side with them on the flagship, game-changing Telesat Lightspeed constellation. MDA’s deep expertise as a LEO prime contractor, as well our own leading expertise in satellite operations and systems engineering, gives us the highest level of confidence in meeting our objectives.”

Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA said: “True to our values, MDA has been committed to being a trusted Telesat Lightspeed mission partner since the beginning, and our proven performance as a LEO constellation satellite prime contractor will now be leveraged to take the constellation forward.

“We believe in Telesat’s mission and vision and are excited that our software-defined digital satellite product will be a key enabler in meeting their goals as we work together to usher in the next generation of space-based satellite communications.”