The FemtoStar Project wants to develop a low-cost communications satellite (or, eventually, a communications satellite constellation) for global data communications, with end-to-end encryption, with minimal ability to determine the user's location, and powered by free software, from the user terminal, to the spacecraft, to the ground station. We've named our design FemtoStar.
We're a small team of developers and hardware guys, not a startup company. We have no funding at this point, and don't intend to seek it until we need it. We want to involve the privacy community in every step of the process.
If you're interested, shoot us a Reddit message at /u/FemtoStar, or email us securely, at [the name of this site/our satellite] at tutanota.com.