WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s decision to sell its Starlink satellite laser communications technology commercially looks to have come too late to catch the next wave of broadband constellations but over time could pose a real challenge to smaller companies still trying to establish a foothold in the same business.

The Telesat Lightspeed, Rivada Space Networks and Kepler Communications Aether constellations have already selected their laser communications terminal (LCT) providers.

For other constellations yet to make the decision, SpaceX’s decision up to now not to subject its terminals to the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) interoperability testing procedure, performed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, could also limit the market potential of the Starlink terminals, which SpaceX is calling Plug & Plaser.

Telesat’s 300-satellite Lightspeed constellation of nearly 200 satellites originally had selected Thales Alenia Space Switzerland as its LCT provider. But that was when Thales Alenia Space France was Lightspeed’s designated prime contractor.

With MDA Space of Canada now designing a less-expensive Lightspeed, MDA has been free to select its own subcontracting team.

MDA Chief Executive Mike Greenley said his company has selected “the vast majority” of the subcontractors for Lightspeed, including the LCT provider, but that announcing the various subcontractors will await the signature of final purchase orders for the Lightspeed network.

“None of these things have been announced,” Greenley said March 20 during the Satellite 2024 conference, organized by Access Intelligence. “They are all internal decisions that have not been communicated externally to close PO’s [purchase orders]. As that happens I am sure there will be a flurry of announcements made across the supply as everybody gets to come help build 200 satellites.”

Telesat Chief Executive Daniel S. Goldberg said the SpaceX Starlink announcement on LCTs was intriguing but that Telesat, which spent consideration time on due diligence before OK’ing the Thales Switzerland choice, had not talked with Starlink.

“There are pros and cons,” Goldberg said during a March 28 investor call, referring to the Starlink LCT generally and not specifically its application to Lightspeed.

“SpaceX is building lots of them and could allow us theoretically to connect with their constellation, although they are flying lower than we are so were we to interconnect we would probably do that in RF [radio frequency spectrum],” rather than optically.

“I’m not sure that Starlink optical link is SDA-compliant. That would have to be something you would take into consideration. There are a number of good optical inter-satellite link providers out there, with heritage and the like,” Goldberg said.

In fact while four companies — Tesat-Spacecom, Mynaric, Skyloom and CACI/SA Photonics — have put their LCTs through the SDA’s interoperability testing, only Tesat has proved at least initial performance in orbit.

That is partly a function of whose LCTs are aboard which set of SDA satellites and when they are launched. SDA Director Derek Tournear said March 18 at Satellite 2024.

“All the vendors passed the test bed at NRL, so the question is the question: When do we want to say they are working well on orbit? We have demonstrated with the Tesat terminals. They are going through test and checkout and they’re able to do the pointing, acquisition and timing with each other. So those are working. Other vendors’ terminals as they come on line and go through this we’re happy to say whether or not they’re working on orbit,” Tournear said.

SpaceX satellites were used as part of SDA’s first Tranche 0 Tracking Layer launches, launched together with satellites built by York Space Systems.

In a March 6 webinar organized by SpaceNews, Tournear said:

“The SpaceX satellites that were launched with the York satellites in the beginning are taking tracking data and demonstrated they are able to acquire, point and do some initial transfer of data from the laser crossings.

“We have have an initial proof of concept on the Tranche 0 satellites. The next satellites up will be the York Transport satellites. We have been telling York: Focus everything on the Link 16 and the demos.’ So we haven’t done the crosslink demonstrations with York yet.

“We anticipate that probably in the May time frame we’ll be able to have the mesh network with the York satellites and then we’ll be able to work crosslinks between York and SpaceX.”

Tournear said the Lockheed Martin satellites will be performing their optical tests a bit later in the year.

SDA is now acting as a de facto creator of technical standards for LCTs, which is not to everyone’s liking. Industry officials said SDA’s Version 3.1 standard has far lower performance specifications than do the LCTs now being developed commercially.

Whether SpaceX will eventually elect to put its LCTs through the SDA interoperability test procedures is unknown. As of late March they had not yet done so, which could be an issue for prospective Plug & Plaser customers.

John Finney, chief executive of broadband satellite ground terminal manufacturer ALL.SPACE, said commercial satellite fleet owners should think twice before adopting Plug & Plaser.

“This message is for global operator CEOs,” Finney wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Your entire business model for data is at risk” because of Starlink’s business model. “The idea of SpaceX establishing its proprietary tech for [LCTs] is concerning for a few reasons.

“It may hinder efforts to create and embrace open standards for satellite communications like those by the SDA and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS),“ Finney said.

“Let’s learn from the past and avoid monopolies. CEOs and CTOs should avoid favoring Starlink’s offering unless it’s part of an industry-standard forum, or risk the collapse of our industry. This is another satellite operator trap. Fall into it, and you may never recover.”