Project
IRIS² is the EU's planned multi-orbit satellite constellation delivering secure, sovereign broadband connectivity for European governments and citizens.
Amazon has built its 1,000th Leo broadband satellite and says commercial service is weeks away. TNW puts the count in orbit at 396, unchanged since July, so what customers can buy now depends on how fast the rockets fly.
Reality
Bloomberg reports Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica are in early talks about one bid for the European third of the 2 GHz band, a licence that changes hands well before any EU constellation can carry phone traffic.
Reality
EU and French leaders used a Paris summit on 10 September to call for sovereign launch and crew capability. The parts actually under construction are a 348-satellite constellation, German defence budgets and a first orbital launch from Norwegian soil.
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ARIA's Enduring Atmospheric Platforms budget has gone from a £50M estimate in December 2025 to £70M across 18 teams, and the milestone it buys is a week of station-keeping at 300 watts, beyond what high-altitude aircraft have managed so far.
Reality
About €20bn and 51 deals were announced at the Paris space summit, on top of an ESA budget member states had already approved. The dates suppliers will be judged against came from Macron's address, not from a contract.
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An August 2026 review grew IRIS² from around 290 satellites to 348 and its planned investment from 10.6 billion euros to more than 15.6 billion, and the largest single build order, 2.4 billion euros for 264 platforms, went to Belgium's Aerospacelab.
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The delivery annex gives every programme a budget, an owning body and a financial year between 2026/27 and 2029/30, and its biggest line is £2.3bn for the military satellite communications work the projects authority rated red in July.
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Delegations from about 120 countries came to Paris to talk business, with SpaceX and Blue Origin absent. What Europe wants to own is the imaging and connectivity it currently buys from American firms.
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OneWeb revenue hit $342.6M and roughly a quarter of the group total. The implied decline in everything else is the number to put in your GEO renewal paperwork.
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