The European Commission on Monday signed contracts to develop a multibillion euro network of cyber-secure satellites, but that’s unlikely to make Elon Musk lose much sleep.
The communications system, dubbed IRIS², will beam encrypted high-speed broadband internet back to governments, spies, militaries, remote regions not well served by terrestrial services and even gigabyte-guzzling consumers.
But the European Union scheme has been hit with delays and cost overruns while Starlink dominates the mega constellation sector and rivals like Amazon’s Project Kuiper and China’s low Earth orbit internet schemes ramp up.
A key driver is the EU’s worry of being overly reliant on Starlink and the mercurial Musk — a danger highlighted during the war in Ukraine when the SpaceX system reportedly blocked Ukraine’s access during a key counteroffensive.
“We cannot afford to be too dependent,” the bloc’s Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said before signing the contracts.
The spark for the project — with an estimated cost of €10.6 billion — is clear, but a little late.
The Commission had earlier promised that IRIS² — which stands for Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite — would start running this year. Now the target is 2031, EU officials said Monday.
In future, the satellites should also be equipped with optical surveillance sensors along with de-orbiting systems for when the first generation is retired and needs to be brought back to Earth.
IRIS² will also allow for secure military communications, replicating SpaceX’s Starshield system it is building for the United States military.
The three companies in the SpaceRise consortium, SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat, will pay in €4.1 billion and in return operate and deploy the systems commercially for 12 years. The EU is going to contribute €6 billion, which will require extra cash from the next two long-term budgets, while the European Space Agency will pay €550 million.
Now that the contract is signed, the design phase will begin.
The aim is for Europe to use the project to make itself less dependent on SpaceX and to boost the bloc’s flagging competitiveness.
“It’s super important for Europe to have a sovereign capacity, and Starlink will never do that,” said Eva Berneke, the CEO of Eutelsat. She added the investment will help create a “vibrant and competitive” web of suppliers for advanced space technologies inside Europe.
Critics argue that IRIS² is not much more than an industrial subsidy program — handing the struggling space businesses of Airbus and Thales juicy aerospace contracts. They also say that SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat will be able to bolster their own private constellations, all while lining up launch contracts for Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.
However, the bloc’s earlier space programs — such as GPS-alternative Galileo and Earth observation system Copernicus — also attracted similar criticism, but are now considered world-beating space infrastructure.
IRIS² will have 264 satellites in low Earth orbit along with extra spacecraft and cobbled together capacity from existing commercial and government satellites in higher orbits.
Placing interlinked satellites into these different orbits will enable the constellation to communicate securely and quickly and remain constantly connected without needing thousands of satellites like those used by Starlink. An additional layer in low Earth orbit providing further services will also be developed.
Launching the satellites should start in 2029, with 13 missions from Europe’s heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6, one official involved in the program said, adding that “four or five countries” have already said they will patch their own unused capacity from mostly geostationary satellites into IRIS².
The project came under fire from Germany, which balked at the cost. But its backers argue that part of IRIS² will be built by startups — with roughly 10 slots in a reduced orbital band set aside for satellites launched by private rocket companies.
Although consumers can already get a Starlink starter kit for under €400, European companies will only offer their own branded services in the 2030s.
While the network is targeted at offering blanket coverage in Europe, the SpaceRise operators hope to use IRIS² to augment the commercial services.
For example, Madrid-based Hispasat is interested in bolstering its presence in Latin America while Eutelsat’s Berneke says the EU-subsidized program will help its business in Asia.
“This isn’t just a strategy project but a political project,” said Adel Al-Saleh, the CEO of Luxembourg-based SES.
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