{"id":45905,"date":"2023-09-11T22:41:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T14:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/telesat-books-14-launches-with-spacex-bypassing-blue-origin-and-relativity\/"},"modified":"2023-09-11T22:41:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T14:41:13","slug":"telesat-books-14-launches-with-spacex-bypassing-blue-origin-and-relativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/telesat-books-14-launches-with-spacex-bypassing-blue-origin-and-relativity\/","title":{"rendered":"Telesat books 14 launches with SpaceX, bypassing Blue Origin and Relativity"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX will launch 14 Falcon 9 rockets beginning in 2026 to deploy satellites for Telesat\u2019s Lightspeed network, a constellation designed to provide broadband connectivity for businesses, governments, and telecom operators, officials announced Monday.<\/p>\n

Telesat, a Canadian company that has been in business since 1969, has long been an operator of large communications satellites in geostationary orbit. But in 2016, the company announced it would deploy a fleet of low-Earth orbit satellites to beam low-latency, high-speed Internet around the world. The network, which Telesat calls Lightspeed, has faced delays and setbacks, eventually leading Telesat to switch satellite manufacturers from the European firm Thales Alenia Space to Canada-based MDA earlier this year.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Telesat said it has selected SpaceX to launch the Lightspeed satellites on 14 Falcon 9 rockets from launch sites in Florida and California. Each Falcon 9 mission will loft up to 18 Lightspeed satellites on a single launch, according to Telesat. This announcement also signals a change in direction for Telesat, which previously announced launch contracts with Blue Origin and Relativity Space.<\/p>\n

The 14 missions appear to be more than enough to launch Telesat\u2019s first batch of 198 Lightspeed satellites, and the company said the launches will enable global service, which requires 156 spacecraft in orbit, to begin in 2027.<\/p>\n

Going with the proven rocket<\/h2>\n

In a statement, Telesat called SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 the \u201cmost reliable and only reusable orbital rocket flying today.\u201d That\u2019s undoubtedly true, with SpaceX\u2019s Falcon rocket family currently sitting at more than 230 consecutive successful missions.<\/p>\n

Telesat said it will take advantage of SpaceX\u2019s high launch cadence to rapidly deploy the Lightspeed satellites, which will fly in a mix of polar and mid-inclination orbits roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) above Earth. Each Lightspeed satellite will weigh about 1,600 pounds (750 kilograms) at launch, around the same as the current iteration of SpaceX\u2019s own Starlink Internet satellites.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

SpaceX has not shied away from launching satellites for its competitors in the satellite broadband market. Just this year, it has launched Internet satellites for OneWeb, Viasat, and EchoStar.<\/p>\n

But the Lightspeed network will target a different segment of the market than SpaceX\u2019s consumer-focused Starlink constellation. Like OneWeb, Lightspeed is aimed at enterprise customers, such as mobile telco operators and government customers, including schools, medical services, and military forces.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Artist\u2019s illustration of Telesat\u2019s Lightspeed satellites.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Telesat<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper network, which will launch its first test satellites later this year, is more of a direct competitor with Starlink in the consumer Internet market. Amazon selected every available Western rocket besides SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 to launch more than 3,000 satellites for its Kuiper program, booking 77 launches with United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas V and Vulcan rockets, Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, and Europe\u2019s Ariane 6.<\/p>\n

None of those rockets, besides the Atlas V, have flown yet. Nine Atlas V rockets will provide launches for the first clusters of Kuiper satellites.<\/p>\n

Last week, shareholders of a pension fund that includes Amazon stock sued the company, its founder Jeff Bezos, and its board of directors for \u201cbreaching their fiduciary duty\u201d as part of a contract to acquire launch services for the Project Kuiper megaconstellation. The lawsuit alleges that in purchasing launches for Kuiper, Amazon failed to consider SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket. This was the only prudent choice that would have enabled Amazon to launch half of its constellation by a 2026 deadline, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs in this lawsuit say that the Falcon 9 costs less than its competitors and has other advantages, such as being available now. Nevertheless, the lawsuit alleges, SpaceX was never considered due to an intense and personal rivalry between that launch company\u2019s founder, Elon Musk, and Bezos, who has a competing rocket company in Blue Origin.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven these factors, Amazon\u2019s persistent refusal to even consider SpaceX\u2014and the Board\u2019s failure to question its exclusion\u2014lays bare the extent to which Bezos\u2019 personal rivalry influenced Amazon\u2019s procurement process,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Telesat is going with the proven option over rockets that haven\u2019t yet left the planet. The company has previously launched its large geostationary communications satellites on Falcon 9 rockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpaceX has been a trusted and effective launch provider to Telesat on our geostationary satellite programs, and I am delighted that they will be supporting us with their highly reliable Falcon 9 rocket to deploy the Telesat Lightspeed constellation, the most ambitious program in Telesat\u2019s 54-year history,\u201d said Dan Goldberg, Telesat\u2019s president and CEO, in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the dedication and professionalism of the SpaceX team and their outstanding track record of reliability and demonstrated high launch cadence, I have the utmost confidence that they will be an outstanding partner in helping us bring Telesat Lightspeed into service in a timely and low risk manner,\u201d Goldberg said.<\/p>\n

But SpaceX isn\u2019t the first launch partner for Lightspeed.<\/p>\n

Telesat announced a multi-launch agreement with Blue Origin in 2019 for an unspecified number of missions to deliver Lightspeed satellites to orbit using Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket. At that time, Blue Origin said the New Glenn would make its first launch in 2021, but that is now unlikely to happen before 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain in close contact with Blue Origin and believe in time they will become a valued launch provider, and we think it is important to have optionality in our launch services,\u201d a Telesat spokesperson told Ars.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, Telesat and Relativity Space also revealed a contract to launch Lightspeed satellites in smaller bunches on Relativity\u2019s Terran 1 rocket, which flew on its first and only test launch in March. Relativity is moving on from the Terran 1 and focusing on the much larger and partially reusable Terran R.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never envisioned Relativity as part of our initial constellation deployment,\u201d the Telesat spokesperson said. \u201cInstead, we can leverage their capability for single satellite deployments to either replace a satellite or add additional capacity to the network.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX will launch 14 Falcon 9 rockets beginning in 2026 to deploy satellites for Telesat\u2019s Lightspeed network, a constellation designed to provide broadband connectivity for businesses, governments, and telecom operators, officials announced Monday. Telesat, a Canadian company that has been in business since 1969, has long been an operator of large communications satellites in geostationary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}