SpaceX will launch 14 Falcon 9 rockets beginning in 2026 to deploy satellites for Telesat's 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 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.
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.
The 14 missions appear to be more than enough to launch Telesat's 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.
Going with the proven rocket
In a statement, Telesat called SpaceX's Falcon 9 the "most reliable and only reusable orbital rocket flying today." That's undoubtedly true, with SpaceX's Falcon rocket family currently sitting at more than 230 consecutive successful missions.
Telesat said it will take advantage of SpaceX's 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's own Starlink Internet satellites.
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.
But the Lightspeed network will target a different segment of the market than SpaceX's 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.
Amazon's 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's Falcon 9 to launch more than 3,000 satellites for its Kuiper program, booking 77 launches with United Launch Alliance's Atlas V and Vulcan rockets, Blue Origin's New Glenn, and Europe's Ariane 6.
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.
Last week, shareholders of a pension fund that includes Amazon stock sued the company, its founder Jeff Bezos, and its board of directors for "breaching their fiduciary duty" 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.
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's founder, Elon Musk, and Bezos, who has a competing rocket company in Blue Origin.
"Given these factors, Amazon’s persistent refusal to even consider SpaceX—and the Board’s failure to question its exclusion—lays bare the extent to which Bezos’ personal rivalry influenced Amazon’s procurement process," the lawsuit states.
Telesat is going with the proven option over rockets that haven't yet left the planet. The company has previously launched its large geostationary communications satellites on Falcon 9 rockets.
“SpaceX 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’s 54-year history,” said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s president and CEO, in a statement.
“Given 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," Goldberg said.
But SpaceX isn't the first launch partner for Lightspeed.
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's 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.
“We 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,” a Telesat spokesperson told Ars.
Around the same time, Telesat and Relativity Space also revealed a contract to launch Lightspeed satellites in smaller bunches on Relativity's 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.
“We never envisioned Relativity as part of our initial constellation deployment,” the Telesat spokesperson said. “Instead, we can leverage their capability for single satellite deployments to either replace a satellite or add additional capacity to the network.”
