Telesat is close to finalizing a lease on a new facility in Gatineau that will employ more than 300 people and serve as the operations centre for its next-generation Lightspeed satellite constellation, the firm’s CEO says. In an interview with Techopia on Monday afternoon, Dan Goldberg said Telesat has zeroed in on a location across […]
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Telesat is close to finalizing a lease on a new facility in Gatineau that will employ more than 300 people and serve as the operations centre for its next-generation Lightspeed satellite constellation, the firm’s CEO says.
In an interview with Techopia on Monday afternoon, Dan Goldberg said Telesat has zeroed in on a location across the Ottawa River from its Elgin Street headquarters. Telesat will be the sole occupant of the space, which will operate 24 hours a day as the control hub for the company’s low-Earth-orbit satellite network.
“We’re negotiating with the owners now,” Goldberg explained. “We expect to have that done pretty quickly.”
The first satellites in the constellation, dubbed Lightspeed, are expected to start undergoing beta testing in June 2026 and enter full service toward the end of the following year.
It’s the latest signal that work on the US$3.5-billion project is shifting into high gear as Telesat tries to play catchup in the burgeoning low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite space.
The firm’s LEO satellites, which will be manufactured at a Montreal-area facility by Canadian aerospace giant MDA, will orbit about 1,000 kilometres above the Earth’s surface, much closer than traditional satellites.
That allows for lower latency, or lag time, which is expected to translate into better wireless service for customers in remote areas and mobile locations such as airliners and cruise ships.
However, Lightspeed is just one of several LEO projects now on the go as competitors such as SpaceX’s Starlink network and Amazon’s Project Kuiper – backed by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos – are also jostling for pole position in the race to become the market leader.
Starlink is already in operation, and Kuiper Systems launched two prototype satellites last fall.
Telesat, meanwhile, stumbled out of the gate with its own LEO initiative.
When the project was unveiled more than three years ago, the company said it expected the first Lightspeed satellites to be launched in 2024.
But pandemic-fuelled supply-chain disruptions and soaring costs forced the company to revise its timeline, and Telesat struggled to secure financing for the project, which then had an estimated US$5.5-billion price tag.
Telesat changed course last year, severing ties with its original partner, Franco-Italian manufacturer Thales Alenia Space, and turning to MDA to manufacture the satellites in a move that’s expected to save the company US$2 billion in total capital costs.
