The European Union is forging forward with plans for a constellation of web satellites to rival Elon Musk-owned Starlink, after signing a €10.6 billion ($11.1 billion) deal to launch almost 300 satellites into low- and medium-Earth orbits by 2030. The bloc desires the area tech to spice up its digital sovereignty by offering safe comms to governments.
First introduced in 2022, Iris² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) is a public-private partnership whose preliminary price estimate (€6 billion) leapt 76% by a fraught negotiation course of. In the top, this system might be 61% funded from the general public purse; an trade consortium known as SpaceRise, chosen in October, is making up the distinction. This grouping consists of French satellite tv for pc big Eutelsat, which merged with European rival OneWeb again in 2022.
Musk’s Starlink, in the meantime, already has some 6,000 satellites in orbit, lately handed 4 million subscribers, and has main offers with the likes of Royal Caribbean and United Airlines. It’s additionally gearing as much as launch a direct-to-phone service with T-Mobile.
