Wyler registers for 116,640 new satellites
June 28, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Greg Wyler, a serial satellite entrepreneur, is using France to register with the International Telecommunications Union for 116,640 C-band satellites. His immediate previous project was backing 327,000 satellites using Rwanda as the registration authority. That Rwandan project has evidently died.
At one stage, Wyler was involved with O3b (which is now owned by SES) and OneWeb (which is in the process of merging with Eutelsat).
Wyler is working with Karim Michel Sabbagh, a former CEO at SES, who is E-Space’s MD for Europe and the Mid-East. Sabbagh departed from SES in February 2018.
Wyler is using his Florida-based business E-Space SAS as its core vehicle. The constellation is to be called Semaphore-C. It will comprise 116,540 satellites orbiting in 810 planes at 414, 500 and 600 kms altitude.
According to reports, E-Space has raised $90 million in initial funding and is looking to obtain a 20,000 sq. metre factory near Toulouse, France, to build the fleet. It has established a ‘European headquarters’ in Toulouse.
In February 2022, Wyler told the Financial Times that E-Space would launch up to 100,000 satellites in orbit within a decade, and that their satellites were the “first to be designed to clean space.” He said that E-Space technology enables their satellites to collect orbital debris.
E-Space’s mission is to “Make data universally available, secure and actionable anywhere on the planet”. The Company envisions a significant expansion in its manufacturing operations, aiming to employ over 260 individuals by the year 2025.