The SATELLITE 2024 Opening General Session brought together SpaceX, Eutelsat, Astranis, Telesat, SES, and Intelsat in a lively debate on competition, multi-orbit strategy, and the future of GEO.
SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell unveiled “plug and plasers” — commercializing SpaceX’s inter-satellite laser technology for other satellite systems — and said SpaceX will connect Dragon to the internet via Starlink on the Polaris Dawn mission. On an IPO: “We’re not focused on an IPO for Starlink right now. We’re really focused on growth, getting the network right.”
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Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said the OneWeb merger is proceeding, with backlog growing from $700 million. Eutelsat is scaling back OneWeb Gen 2 plans for a stepwise approach to reduce technology risk: “To try to get everything on board on a single new platform and do it as a big bang is taking too much technology risk.”
Astranis CEO John Gedmark said the company plans to launch more satellites to GEO in the next couple of years than the rest of the industry combined, following four satellites planned for later in 2024.
Telesat CEO Daniel Goldberg said 198 Lightspeed satellites are enough to start — with regulatory headroom to grow significantly. On GEO’s future: video distribution remains a massive advantage for GEO in point-to-multipoint delivery.
Intelsat CEO Wajsgras said Starlink has raised everyone’s game: “At some point in time, [consolidation] might make sense for us.” SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh said the industry is “a little crowded” and SES is looking at “specialty plays” and partnership options from a strong balance sheet position. VS
