Lightspeed Slips, Shifts Capacity to Mil-Ka

Full global availability of the Telesat Lightspeed constellation schedule slipped into 2028, owing to hardware production issues. The company remains bullish on the program, however, including its utility for the aviation mobility segment.

At issue are ASICs being developed by SatixFy, which was acquired by MDA (contracted for the full satellite development) in 2025. The acquisition by MDA is, according to Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg, a boost to that effort, “given that MDA has much greater financial and technical resources and is also our prime contractor for the Lightspeed satellites.”

---

---

The new timeline anticipates the first two satellites still launching at the end of 2026. That will be followed by orbit raising and then “the amount of testing that we and a bunch of our customers want to do” before the broader launch sequence hits. That is now anticipated to begin in mid-2027. Goldberg says the company can offer full global coverage with about half the constellation deployed – 96 satellites in orbit – and that milestone should hit at the end of 2027. Final orbital positioning and testing to enable the global coverage footprint will then slip into early 2028.

Schedule slips are unfortunately all too common in the industry. This one will hurt commercial aero a bit, especially around Viasat’s significant commitment to the Lightspeed constellation for its LEO services. But publicly shared direct program commitments for the capacity remain relatively minimal, mostly owing to unclear timing. The Telesat capacity is also expected to be offerable as part of the Airbus HBCplus program, though that will come via a partner (Hughes Networks or Neo Space Group via the SES Open Orbits program are the main Ka-band options currently), not a direct contract.

The slip also leaves the door open for Amazon LEO/Kuiper to get its operation online and capture more business. That effort, too, is running a bit slower than hoped.

---

---

Military Moves

Separately, the company shared that it is shifting 500 MHz of its in-orbit capacity from the commercial Ka-band space to the adjacent Military Ka band. This represents 20% of the total capacity on each satellite, and aims to serve the rapidly growing government and defense segment.  “The geopolitical environment is driving once-in-a-generation increases in defense investments by allied countries globally,” Goldberg shared, “with defense organizations increasingly focused on the need for mission-critical, resilient, reliable, high-throughput, and low-latency satellite communication services from dependable providers.”

The shift still leaves 2 GHz of commercial Ka-band spectrum available, capacity Telesat promises is more than sufficient to handle the commercial demand.