Telesat announced on December 4th that its Lightspeed constellation has successfully completed an early design review, a significant milestone in its ambition to rival Starlink’s dominance in the low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband sector. The review confirmed that the spacecraft design, the first to utilize MDA Space’s reprogrammable Aurora platform, meets all functional and performance requirements.
The project is now progressing to a more detailed engineering phase, leading up to a critical design review. This review will validate the final design of the 750-kilogram spacecraft, ensuring readiness for mass production. Telesat has already secured 14 SpaceX launches, commencing mid-2026, to deploy all 198 Lightspeed satellites within a year.
In September, MDA initiated construction of a high-volume manufacturing facility in Quebec, Canada, with a capacity to produce two satellites daily. MDA is also engaged in early design work for an unnamed client intending to utilize the Aurora platform for a non-geostationary orbit constellation.
Telesat projects that the Lightspeed constellation will offer approximately 10 terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity. The target markets include backhaul services for mobile network operators and internet service providers, aviation and maritime connectivity, and government clients.
Initially, Lightspeed’s focus on enterprise and government sectors differentiated it from Starlink. However, Starlink’s recent expansion into these markets, particularly aviation, has intensified the competition. Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s CEO, acknowledged Starlink’s success during the company's November 14th earnings call, stating:
“Starlink, I believe, is going to continue to gain market share, but they’re not going to take 100% of the market. The market is big. It’s growing — even with customers that they’re serving today, those customers will want multiple providers. That’s just kind of how these enterprise customers operate.”
Goldberg emphasized Telesat’s strategy of developing services to compete not only with Starlink's current capabilities but also with its anticipated future advancements, as SpaceX continues to expand its constellation, currently exceeding 6,800 satellites. Amazon’s Project Kuiper, planning to launch 3,236 satellites next year, further intensifies the competition in the LEO broadband arena.