Canadian company Telesat is racing to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to provide high-speed global broadband from space, pitting the satellite communications company founded in 1969 against two pioneering billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Tesla CEO Musk, who was only a year old when Telesat launched its first satellite, is putting so-called Starlink LEO into orbit with his company, SpaceX, and Amazon, founded by Bezos, is planning a LEO project called Project Kuiper to introduce itself to the satellite Internet.
In 2019, Canadian Telesat signed a launch deal with Bezos' Blue Origin space company. David Windling, Telesat's chief technical officer, said discussions are underway with three others.
Telesat aims to launch the first batch of 298 satellites being built by Thales Alenia Space in early 2023, with partial service in higher latitudes later that year, and a full global satellite Internet service in 2024.
What distinguishes the LEO Telesat satellites is that they will offer satellite internet at a much lower price than SpaceX and Amazon, as this Canadian company has been working in satellite services for decades.
Carissa Christensen, executive director of research firm BryceTech, said that Telesat "is a satellite operator, has been a satellite operator, and has the advantage of experience and expertise in the business."
The constellation of Telesat's Earth orbit is called Lightspeed, and it's estimated to cost half of the $ 10 billion in SpaceX and Amazon projects.
