Telesat selects manufacturer for Lightspeed LEO

OTTAWA — Global satellite operator Telesat announced today it has selected Thales Alenia Space to be the prime manufacturer of Telesat’s forthcoming low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network, which will be named Lightspeed, the company also unveiled today. The US$3 billion contract with Thales Alenia is just a piece of the planned US$5 billion total Lightspeed project. The Lightspeed broadband satellite network will be comprised initially of a fleet of 298 next-generation satellites integrated with an advanced ground network. Operating under Telesat’s global Ka-band priority spectrum rights, the first Lightspeed satellites are expected to be launched in approximately two years,...