After years of uncertainty about the viability of Rivada Space Networks’ 600-sat laser-linked “Outernet” constellation, the company announced plans to fly its first demonstration mission in 2026 and offer connectivity services by 2027.
In-N-Out: Outernet aims to be the first self-contained communications network in LEO, offering companies and governments the unique capability of communicating over a low-latency, mesh network without ever touching terrestrial internet.
Over the past few years, subsea internet cables have been disrupted multiple times, and Western governments have pointed the finger at Chinese and Russian ships. Bad news for global comms, but good news for Rivada.
“If there is a targeted attack on it to take down the internet, this is the only thing on a global basis that will keep operating,” Declan Ganley, Rivada’s Chairman and CEO, told Payload.
As a result, governments have shown interest in signing on to Rivada’s solution.
Supply and demand: The company has secured over $15B in MoUs to utilize its service, including a contract with the US Navy announced in December. Ganley said the company has also been talking with over a dozen allied navies interested in the Outernet.
The company also signed an MoU with UltiSat, which will act as a reseller to target government entities, humanitarian aid organizations, and critical infrastructure markets.
To win more US government contracts, the company announced three new board members to sit on it’s DC-based subsidiary, Rivada Select Services, including Joe Maguire, a former acting director of national intelligence and retired vice admiral of the US Navy.
Michael Abad-Santos, CEO of Rivada Select Services, predicted that government defense agencies will recognize the growing security threat facing internet-dependent comms infrastructure by investing in more secure solutions.
“An event is going to happen,” Abad-Santos said. “This current operational mode of ‘just give me the cheapest, dirtiest bandwidth I can get because I’m budget limited’…That’s going to go away.”
Not out of the woods: It’s still not clear if Rivada can get its Outernet up and running in time to hold onto the spectrum rights required to provide priority access over vital Ka-band frequencies.
- In 2023, regulators in Liechtenstein had given the company a waiver to miss an early milestone of having 10% of its constellation operational by September of that year.
- In October, the regulator pulled the company’s authorization.
- In November, the company announced a new filing through Germany for priority access to additional spectra across Ka, Q, and V bands, intended to act as a complement to—not a replacement of—the Liechtenstein authorization.
As for the Liechtenstein authorization, Ganley remains “confident [it] will be resolved well before we launch anything.”
