Telesat Lightspeed’s supply chain is becoming real

Telesat’s LEO constellation, Lightspeed, has gone through fits and starts over the past eight years that make gauging its progress difficult, but this week the program took a veritable step forward with the announcement of three new suppliers.

Over the past 24 hours, MDA Space disclosed the following hardware vendors that will each build components for Lightspeed’s 156-198 satellites.

• Burloak Technologies of Oakville, Ontario, will supply 50,000+ 3D-printed metal parts 

• Rakon of Aukland, New Zealand, will build an undisclosed number of Master Reference Oscillators 

• Tesat of Backnang, Germany, will provide 792 optical crosslinks  

It’s not clear what percentage of Telesat Lightspeed MDA will outsource, as manufacturers vary widely in their approach. At present, it appears Lightspeed will have more outsourced hardware than Amazon or Starlink, but less than OneWeb Gen-1. Telesat also has a 2023 contract with SpaceX for 14 Falcon 9 launches starting in mid-2026, and an agreement with Google-spinoff Aalyria for advanced networking technology. The company will likely need to select suppliers for a few more key elements (if it hasn’t already), such as propulsion units and solar arrays.

Telesat’s selection of MDA as prime contractor for Lightspeed in August 2023 was a head-turning moment given the fact that Telesat had selected Thales Alenia Space as the prime two years prior. And just as MDA purchased the digital payload division of SatixFy to reinforce its position with Telesat, Thales Alenia had acquired Beyond Gravity’s opto-electronics business line (in 2016) partially to win the Lightspeed order. Having an enthusiastic prime contractor was not enough to show the program truly advancing, but a diversified supplier base tips the scale.

SOURCE: https://www.tesat.de/news/press/941-tesat-selected-by-mda-space-to-deliver-oisl