The EU Council has signed off on financing IRIS²:
IRIS² is intended to be a communications satellite constellation that:
IRIS² will be the third EU-owned satellite constellation after COPERNICUS (Sentinel dual-use observation satellites) and GALILEO (satellite navigation).
The EU financing for IRIS² is for their development component of 2.4 billion Euro. The constellation is currently planned to cost around 6 billion Euro, with 30% provided by commercial partners buying into it and the rest likely to be financed by EU members through ESA.
IRIS² is intended to be a communications satellite constellation that:
- will consist of up to 200 satellites in low-earth orbit
- will provide secure communications and internet backbone functionality for the European Union, including quantum-key encryption
- will also explicitly be used for both governmental and military purposes
- is explicitly intended to make Europe independent of any commercial offers by companies in 3rd countries (they're not naming Starlink and Elon Musk in this, but leave it to the press to do that)
IRIS² will be the third EU-owned satellite constellation after COPERNICUS (Sentinel dual-use observation satellites) and GALILEO (satellite navigation).
The EU financing for IRIS² is for their development component of 2.4 billion Euro. The constellation is currently planned to cost around 6 billion Euro, with 30% provided by commercial partners buying into it and the rest likely to be financed by EU members through ESA.