Thales Alenia Space and Maxar Consortium Achieve Major Milestone in Design Phase of Telesat's LEO Satellite Constellation

Jan. 24, 2019

Thales Alenia Space and SSL, a Maxar Technologies company have completed an important milestone for the Telesat LEO constellation. The success of the consortium's System Requirements Review (SRR) demonstrates increasing momentum for Telesat's global communications system design and was highlighted by three satellite industry leaders agreeing on key innovations that will enable Telesat LEO to deliver breakthrough performance and affordability.

As previously announced, Telesat selected the consortium of Thales Alenia Space and Maxar Technologies, the owner of SSL and MDA, as one of two contractors for its LEO system design phase. The consortium, led by Thales Alenia Space, is designing an end-to-end communications system, including satellites, landing stations, user terminals, operations centers, and ground network.

The Thales Alenia Space / Maxar design for Telesat LEO is based on the combined companies' proven experience, industrial capability and a strong supplier base for fully integrated communications satellite systems, including payload antenna design, on-board processing, optical inter-satellite links and LEO satellite production. The success of the SRR was the result of multiple work streams located in France, the U.S. and Canada working together to apply the consortium's very best talent to every task.

"Our consortium is applying the latest technologies to optimize system network performance and assure that the constellation design is the best one for achieving Telesat's goals. The project team, consisting of engineering specialists at both Thales Alenia Space and Maxar's SSL, is developing game-changing solutions as we successfully complete one milestone after another. Thales Alenia Space leads the industry in successfully deployed constellations and we are very excited to be supporting this new constellation from Telesat that will bring unprecedented levels of capacity and flexibility for broadband services around the world", declared Martin Van Schaik, Senior VP Sales and Marketing Thales Alenia Space.

"The consortium of Thales Alenia Space and Maxar's SSL has made great progress in developing innovative solutions for the Telesat constellation," said Dario Zamarian, Group President, SSL. "Completing the SRR is a significant milestone and demonstrates the success of our collaboration with Thales Alenia Space and the value of our SSL and MDA businesses working together to bring integrated solutions that drive competitive advantages for satellite operators, and help build a better world."

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