Telesat continues to prepare for the launch and activation of its Lightspeed low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation with two new announcements.
The initial Lightspeed constellation, which has 198 satellites, is planned to start launching in 2026 and activation shortly thereafter.
Ahead of the launch, Telesat Government Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary based in the U.S. said that North Carolina based AvL Technologies completed a successful demonstration of their 1.35-meter XY antenna terminal with Telesat’s Lightspeed LEO demonstration satellite.
Telesat said the test was conducted their Allan Park teleport near Hannover, Ontario and that the test “validated the terminal’s capability to operate seamlessly across LEO, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites using a single, compact platform.”
Telesat added that “Throughout the week-long campaign, the AvL terminal consistently acquired and tracked Telesat’s GEO satellite (Anik F3), followed by successful acquisition of their LEO 3 demonstration satellite. Additional testing validated connectivity and tracking of MEO satellites. These results underscore the terminal’s readiness for dynamic, multi-orbit environments and its suitability for a wide range of mission-critical applications.”
In separate news, Telesat announced that Calian would develop the operational data platform for the Lightspeed network.
Telesat said that “Calian will design, develop, integrate, and deploy the Telesat Lightspeed Operational Data Platform, which will form the secure, real-time data backbone across Telesat’s LEO satellite constellation, Landing Stations and User Terminals.”
They added that “The Operational Data Platform will support bi-directional, asynchronous data flows and high availability across multiple domains—enabling real-time situational awareness, automated mission response, and secure data exchange between the Telesat Lightspeed network components and various operational and business platforms that leverage the system data.”