Airbus Defence and Space has signed an initial contract to design and build the first layer of satellites for Europe\u2019s sovereign IRIS\u00b2 constellation. The layer will include at least 66 low Earth orbit satellites, with delivery scheduled for 2029.<\/p>\n
Eutelsat is responsible for the constellation\u2019s low Earth orbit segment within the SpaceRISE consortium. The agreement allows Airbus and Thales Alenia Space to begin work on its first satellite layer.<\/p>\n
Airbus will manufacture the satellite platforms and integrate payloads supplied by Thales Alenia Space. The company plans to use its serial-production facility in Toulouse and expand industrial capacity to meet the programme\u2019s timetable and performance requirements.<\/p>\n
The initial layer will serve as the sovereign pillar of IRIS\u00b2 and deliver military Ka-band connectivity to European users. It will draw on Airbus\u2019s previous investment and production experience in large low Earth orbit constellations.<\/p>\n
IRIS\u00b2, or Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, is the European Union\u2019s flagship secure-connectivity programme. Its multi-orbit constellation is intended to provide resilient services to governments, support commercial users and extend European connectivity infrastructure to international partners.<\/p>\n
Airbus\u2019s Toulouse site is already building a new batch of OneWeb satellites for Eutelsat after the production facility was transferred back to Europe. The same industrial base will support the planned manufacturing and integration of the first IRIS\u00b2 layer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a privilege to contribute to this strategic programme, which will strengthen Europe\u2019s digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy,\u201d said Alain Faur\u00e9, Head of Space Systems at Airbus Defence and Space. \u201cLeveraging our proven, industry-leading experience in the production of large-scale LEO constellations, we are fully committed to delivering this critical first layer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contract was signed in connection with the International Space Summit held in Paris on 9 and 10 September. Airbus did not disclose the value of the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airbus Defence and Space has signed an initial contract to design and build the first layer of satellites…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-766220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}