Europe orders construction of broadband network in space
The European Commission has commissioned a network of satellites beaming broadband to Earth.
The Commission gave a 12-year license to the newly formed consortium SpaceRise. That will allocate €10.6 billion to build a network with 290 space codes. Of that, 61% will be financed from public funds.
If all goes according to plan, by 2030 companies and governments will be able to avail broadband in the most remote areas of the EU and surrounding areas.
SpaceRise is led by Eutelsat, Hispasat and SES. Partners already joining are Thales Alenia Space, OHB, Airbus Defense and Space, Telespazio, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Hisdesat and Thales SIX.
The so-called Iris2 project is to become a local alternative to Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The constellation is Europe’s third major infrastructure project in space, after the Galileo navigation system and Copernicus, the world’s largest Earth observation network.
One major difference between Iris2 and Starlink is that the latter is part of a launch company (SpaceX) and can operate on a very ambitious launch schedule.
China is building a similar network of broadband satellites. Unlike Europe, the Chinese do have a reusable rocket. At least the concept for it was shown last month.
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