OneWeb has forged a 50-50 joint venture with its satellite maker Airbus DS to design and build the broadband startup’s 900-strong LEO system, as well as constellations for other ventures in the future. Called OneWeb Satellites, the JV will first set up a prototype production line in France before shifting manufacturing to North Amercia.
OneWeb has forged a 50-50 joint venture with its satellite maker Airbus DS to design and build the broadband startup’s 900-strong LEO system, as well as constellations for other ventures in the future.
Called OneWeb Satellites, the JV will first set up a prototype production line in France to produce the initial 10 satellites of its constellation, which has deals with Arianespace and Virgin Galactic to begin launching from around late 2017.
Manufacturing will then shift to North America, where OneWeb Satellites plans to churn out some 2.6 satellites a day, each weighing less than 150kg, to rapidly deploy the system globally.
OneWeb CEO Matt O’Connell said: “As we build out the constellation, besides its very reliable satellite performance heritage and technical support, Airbus brings design for manufacturing capability into this operation which is key to achieving both our short term and long term goals for providing cost effective solutions on time for our future customers.”
Airbus DS plans to later market the JV’s satellites, platforms and equipment to other operators.
Brian Holz, OneWeb’s VP of satellite, launch and fleet operations, has been selected to head the JV. Holz was CTO and the first employee of O3b Networks, a satellite broadband firm that has been operating commercial services in MEO since September 2014.
He was tasked with building the engineering team responsible for developing O3b’s technology and constellation. O3b’s ability to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, equity and export credit agency-backed financing is boosted by key shareholder SES, an established fleet operator thought to have a stake of just less than 50%.
OneWeb has a strategic alliance with fleet operator Intelsat, which invested US$25m in a US$500m funding round in July that also included Airbus, Hughes, Qualcomm, Virgin, Bharti, TotalPlay and Coca-Cola.
The satellite broadband project is expected to cost upwards of US$2bn in total.
Speaking to SatelliteFinance after taking over as OneWeb CEO from founder Greg Wyler in October, O’Connell said the group had enough existing cash to carry it through initial development work.
For the rest of the funding, O’Connell said he will use his Wall Street background to explore a range of financing options that do not necessarily need to include export credit agencies.
Advances in technology, increasing demand for data across the world, and the falling cost to access space has spawned a number of non-geostationary satellite orbit ventures in recent years.
Leosat, headed by former O3b CEO Mark Rigolle, has plans to begin ordering what will be a 78-strong LEO constellation from the middle of this year.
The startup has been working with Thales Alena Space on a feasibility for its Ka-band system, with launches aiming to kick off in 2019. The full constellation, operating on six planes in a polar orbit and targeting 2020 for full services, could cost in the region of US$3.6bn.
A regulatory filing last week showed it has started a US$5m fundraising process.
