LeoSat was an imaginative Ka-band satellite concept that would have used laser connectivity to deliver and collect data from specialist business users around the planet. It was planning a super-constellation of at least 78 satellites.

Initially, LeoSat had a $50 million Stage 1 financial support from Hispasat and Japan’s JSAT but further financial commitments from the two major operators ended as they said they had changed strategy. LeoSat intended using satellite frequencies held by Thales-Alenia Space which required that satellites be orbited and brought into use by 2021.

Now, in an interview in trade magazine Via Satellite, LeoSat CEO Mark Rigolle said that he and CCO Ronald van de Breggen had, in effect, been “fired” along with the rest of the project’s team.

Rigolle, who had previously held roles as CFO at SES and CEO of O3b and as an advisor to Kacific, told the journal that it had taken some years to put together the financial consortium and this could not be replicated in a few weeks.

Nevertheless, Rigolle said the company remains as a legal entity and he and LeoSat’s founders will continue to see if new investment elsewhere is possible and that the founders would not give up on the concept. He said the business model was ‘200 per cent viable.’

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