(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Telesata Canadian satellite communications company, has announced that the space technology company MDA to build 198 advanced satellites for Telesat Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) programalso specifying that the Telesat Lightspeed program is now fully funded through the provision of global services, taking into account the company’s equity contribution, certain supplier financing and aggregate financing commitments from Canadian federal and provincial government partners.
The space giant pointed out that the cutting-edge satellites built by MDA “are also very affordable”, resulting in a Projected total capital cost savings for the program of approximately $2 billion compared to the previous estimate. “These significant savings facilitate program financing and significantly enhance what were already attractive projected financial returns,” it noted.
TO February 2021Telesat had chosen Thales Alenia Space – joint ventures between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) – to build the Lightspeed satellite fleet. The assignment, according to CNBC reports, had a estimated cost of $5 billion to build the network, including approximately $3 billion for satellites, plus costs for rocket launches, ground infrastructure construction and development of software platforms to manage the network.