OTTAWA — Telesat announced it is entering into a system design and development contract with the consortium of Thales Alenia Space and Maxar Technologies, the owner of SSL, to maximize the performance and service capabilities of Telesat’s planned global LEO constellation architecture.
Thales Alenia Space and Maxar have collaborated on major satellite programs around the world and each brings a broad range of technical skills and experience, Telesat said in its news release. Over the coming months, Thales Alenia Space-Maxar will complete their preliminary design, address key hardware and software development items, and perform a series of technical reviews leading to a firm proposal for manufacture and launch of Telesat’s LEO satellites and deployment of the ground system infrastructure. Telesat said it anticipates deciding by mid-2019 on a prime contractor for Telesat’s LEO program — space segment, ground segment and system integration.
“We are very pleased that we have now signed the outstanding team of Thales Alenia Space-Maxar who will further develop their design and submit a final proposal in early 2019 for Telesat’s full LEO system, both space and ground segment,” said Erwin Hudson, vice-president, Telesat LEO, in the news release. “Combining Telesat’s proprietary LEO architecture with our global spectrum rights creates a tremendous opportunity for Telesat’s LEO system to truly transform global communications. Telesat looks forward to this next phase of the program and to selecting a prime contractor to build and deploy our LEO space and ground infrastructure.”
Telesat said its state-of-the art LEO constellation will transform global communications by offering an unsurpassed combination of capacity, speed, security, resiliency and low cost with latency that is as good or better than the most advanced terrestrial networks. According to the company, Telesat LEO will accelerate 5G expansion, end the digital divide with fibre-like high-speed services into rural and remote communities, and set new levels of performance for commercial and government broadband on land, sea and in the air.
Telesat is a leading global satellite operator, providing reliable and secure satellite-delivered communications solutions worldwide to broadcast, telecom, corporate and government customers. The company’s current fleet consists of 16 GEO satellites, the Canadian payload on ViaSat-1 and one Phase 1 LEO satellite which is the start of Telesat’s planned global LEO satellite constellation that will offer low-latency, high-throughput broadband services. An additional GEO satellite is scheduled for launch in August 2018.
