Europe is moving to strengthen its position in the increasingly strategic satellite internet race, with Eutelsat ordering 229 additional OneWeb satellites from Airbus in a deal worth 1 billion Euro.
The Franco British operator said the new satellites will replenish and expand its low Earth orbit network through 2034. The order comes on top of 440 Airbus built satellites ordered in 2024 and 2025, with deliveries of those earlier orders expected to begin in the fourth quarter.
OneWeb currently has more than 600 satellites in orbit. Eutelsat expects its fleet to exceed 1000 in the near future, although that remains far smaller than SpaceX’s Starlink network, which has more than 11000 satellites.
The difference reflects two different strategies. OneWeb’s satellites operate at a higher altitude, allowing the company to provide global coverage with fewer spacecraft. It also focuses primarily on governments, businesses and telecommunications companies rather than selling directly to mass market consumers.
The expansion is significant because satellite communications are increasingly viewed as strategic infrastructure rather than simply another source of internet access. Eutelsat is considered strategically important by both France and Britain because OneWeb provides secure communications and broadband services through a low Earth orbit network outside Starlink.
The new satellites are also intended to maintain OneWeb services until the European Union's IRIS² secure communications constellation becomes commercially operational around the end of the decade. IRIS² is planned to include 348 satellites and is designed to strengthen Europe's secure communications capabilities.
The announcement comes as European governments are debating how to prevent their growing satellite programmes from becoming fragmented. At a Paris space summit, European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher called for national systems to be interoperable rather than operating as separate networks. New contracts for IRIS² were also announced at the summit.
Eutelsat has booked two Ariane launch missions for 2027 and 2028 to deploy OneWeb satellites. The company has also been expanding cooperation with European space firms, including a deal allowing German company OroraTech to place infrared sensors on up to 96 future Eutelsat satellites for monitoring wildfires, infrastructure and maritime activity.
The race is therefore about more than competing for internet customers. Europe is trying to ensure that critical communications, connectivity and space based services do not depend on a single foreign network. OneWeb's expansion is one piece of a much larger effort to build greater European technological and strategic autonomy in orbit.
