European space consortium for IRISS satellites
Europe’s major space companies have come together in a consortium to build and operate the flagship future European satellite constellation IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite).
The €2.4bn IRIS² EU flagship programme aims to provide an alternative secure and resilient connectivity infrastructure for European governments, businesses and consumers, particularly in hard to reach places.
The open consortium will be governed by Airbus Defence and Space, Eutelsat, Hispasat, SES and Thales Alenia Space. The consortium will also include core teams from Deutsche Telekom, OHB, Orange, Hisdesat, Telespazio, and Thales. The aim is to create a state-of-the-art satellite constellation based on a multi-orbit architecture that would be interoperable with the terrestrial telecoms ecosystem.
The consortium will set up a European space and telecoms team across these companies, encouraging start-ups, mid-Caps and SMEs to join the partnership. The aims is to encourage new business models to emerge with collaboration among all European space players across the whole connectivity value chain.
The team will also link government and commercial infrastructure and the partners say they are also well positioned to provide commercial services.
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The IRIS² programme aims to provide initial services in 2024 which means it will be using existing satellite infrastructure, with a full roll out by 2027. This will rely on the next generation Ariane 6 launcher to get large satellites into orbit.
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