The German broadband satellite constellation projet Rivada Networks announced it has contracted nano satellite manufacturer Tyvak for the design and construction of its 300 satellites constellation. Deployment should start in 2025 with full deployment expected in 2028. The contract value as announced by Tyvak is 2.4B$.
More information is available here and here.
This announcement raises many questions. The first is on the availability of funding which is uncertain at this stage. The second is on the cost of the system as this boils down to a cost of 8M$ for each satellite, which seems high given the current state of technology. The third question is on the industrial capacity of Tyvak to produce such a large number of mini satellites (500kg) in this short timeframe. The fourth is on the launch capacity available to have the constellation in place by 2025-2028. And the last one relates to the inclusion of Rivada within the EU Space Connectivity Program as the choice of a US manufacturer is probably to make this more difficult. It is probable that we will get many more such annoucements in the future as the EU project goes forward.