Telesat Lightspeed / connectivity constellation
sourcing6 factsCanadain detailed engineering and manufacturing phase
Telesat Lightspeed is Telesat's LEO network for connectivity in commercial and military Ka-band. Telesat says the network offers Enterprise and Government service tiers and will be certified to the MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet standard.
faq
Who operates Telesat Lightspeed?
Telesat Lightspeed is operated by Telesat. (source, as of 2026-07-05)
facts
operatorTelesat
countryCanada
sensor typesunknown
sats launched (total)unknown
sats active (claimed)unknown
sats active (verified)unknown
sats planned198
orbitLow Earth Orbit (LEO)
first launchunknown
latest launchunknown
statusin detailed engineering and manufacturing phase
websitetelesat.com
orbit
orbitLow Earth Orbit (LEO)
sats launched (total)unknown
sats active (claimed)unknown
sats active (verified)unknown
sats planned198
events
timeline
- 20252025-04-07Telesat secures substantial multi-year Lightspeed services contract with Viasat (source, as of 2026-07-05)
- 20242024-12-04Telesat and MDA complete preliminary design review for Lightspeed satellites (source, as of 2026-07-05)
- 2024-09-13Telesat completes $2.54 billion Lightspeed funding with Canada and Quebec governments (source, as of 2026-07-05)
- 2024-04-01Telesat and Government of Canada agree terms on C$2.14 billion Lightspeed loan (source, as of 2026-07-05)
- 20232023-09-11Telesat signs 14-launch SpaceX agreement to deploy all Lightspeed satellites (source, as of 2026-07-05)
- 2023-08-11Telesat contracts MDA as prime manufacturer for 198-satellite Lightspeed constellation (source, as of 2026-07-05)
sources
[1] telesat.com ↗
operatorfirst-party2026-07-05sats plannedfirst-party2026-07-05orbitfirst-party2026-07-05statusfirst-party2026-07-05websitefirst-party2026-07-05
[2] en.wikipedia.org ↗
countrywikipedia2026-07-05