TAMPA, Fla. — Logos Space has early financial commitments needed to deploy 1,000 satellites for global broadband coverage, according to the former Google executive behind the one-year-old megaconstellation startup.
Milo Medin, who is also a former NASA project manager, did not provide specific financial details in emails to SpaceNews a week after Logos emerged from stealth Oct. 31, with the backing of Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology (USIT) fund.
The venture has applied to the Federal Communications Commission for permission to operate 3,960 satellites in K and higher frequency V and E spectrum bands.
Medin said Logos would only need 1,067 satellites to serve government and enterprise customers globally, spread across two shells in low Earth orbit (LEO).
“We are funded by USIT and have the financial commitments necessary to launch the first shells,” he said, adding that there is investor interest coming from other firms.
The proposed constellation would be larger than the 3,236-satellite Project Kuiper network due to begin launches next year for Amazon, which has outlined plans to invest more than $10 billion to become a space company, including building spacecraft in-house.
“Obviously, we raise money in tranches, but we believe we have a strong path to see this through to launch and full system operation that delivers the product we are aiming to build,” Medin added.
“We are not trying to build a huge team and do everything ourselves. The space ecosystem has evolved to the point where we don’t think that is the best way to build a satellite service anymore.
“We are also not trying to build a system with a consumer focus that needs large numbers of people around the world. We think we can be a company very focused on engineering and operations, working through partnerships for distribution, and satisfying an area of proven demand.”
Enterprise and government business-focused Rivada Space Networks, which has a $2.4 billion contract with Terran Orbital, has also said it has financial commitments needed to deploy 300 satellites before a mid-2026 regulatory deadline.
However, lingering concerns over Rivada’s ability to finance the contract recently contributed to Terran Orbital’s decision to sell itself to Lockheed Martin.
Logos satellites would fly 870-925 kilometers above Earth, higher than Project Kuiper and SpaceX’s Starlink but lower than OneWeb, Rivada, and the Lightspeed constellation Telesat aims to begin deploying in mid-2026.
When Logos can start deploying satellites largely depends on when the FCC approves its application, Medin said, but the venture is targeting 2027 for its first set of launches.
The FCC set up a standalone Space Bureau last year to help process applications for more than 60,000 new satellites, mostly in LEO, driven by falling costs to build and launch increasingly powerful spacecraft.
Geared for electronic warfare
Before founding Redwood City, California-based Logos, Medin was the vice president of access services at Google, overseeing projects seeking to improve access to wireless networks worldwide.
Also among the six people Logos currently employs is Rama Akella, who helped design the wireless communications systems for Starlink and the payload technology for its emerging direct-to-smartphone business.
Akella joined Logos from Project Kuiper, where he was director for systems and SOC (system-on-chip).
The Logos constellation would leverage inter-satellite links to reduce the need for ground infrastructure and use high frequencies and high elevation angles to minimize interference on the ground, Medin said, employing narrow beams to reduce signal disruption and guard against jamming.
Starlink uses Ku-band to connect to user terminals and also has permission to use extremely high frequencies to improve broadband services.
“To share spectrum efficiently, spatial diversity is very important,” Medin said.
“Regardless of spectrum priority, we need to build resilience into the system to deal with jamming, which we believe will be commonplace in the not-too-distant future.
“That is why we are fans of using higher frequency spectrum and narrow beams in this type of environment. We simultaneously improve our ability to survive interference from other systems, protect current systems from interference, and avoid intentional interference from jammers and electronic warfare.”
He said the startup spent its first year verifying that its technical approach works for the spectrum bands it is applying for, including extensive conversations with U.S. government agencies.
“Now that the application process has kicked off, we are beginning to scale up hiring and start detailed engineering design,” he added.
“We are going through design trades, buy-vs-build trades, partner selection and design, development, integration, and test milestone planning.”
Joining the fray
Logos sees soaring demand for more satellite bandwidth in general, especially for fiber-like speed ranges that can supplement and back up terrestrial connectivity.
“As someone who has built a ton of terrestrial consumer broadband infrastructure in my career, I can tell you it’s difficult to build one transport system that simultaneously meets enterprise needs and also supports viable consumer service price points,” Medin said.
“This is even harder in satellite systems where it’s difficult to support highly varying capacity needs across large geographies.”
Although numerous rival ventures chasing this opportunity have been inundating the FCC, Medin said many that have applied for licenses to operate in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) will ultimately never be built amid sizable funding and technical challenges.
Likewise, he said many retiring geostationary satellites will not be replaced after exceeding their operational lifetimes, and their traffic will shift over to NSGO systems that can deliver more capacity with low latency.
This creates more demand for NSGO capacity, he added, especially for the enterprise applications many geostationary services currently serve.
While numerous competitors have filed for licenses to operate in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO), many of these ventures face significant hurdles—ranging from funding challenges to technical feasibility—that could ultimately prevent them from coming to frution.