2024-03-06 13:07:49
The main control center for the EU’s IRIS2 satellite constellation, designed to provide Internet access, will be located at the Italian Space Research Center in Fucino. This was announced by Adolfo Urso, Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, during a visit to the center, which is managed by the military-industrial consortium Leonardo, Day.Az reports with reference to TASS.
“We managed to ensure that the main of the three IRIS2 control centers is located in Fucino, the other two will be in France and Luxembourg,” the minister said, as quoted by ANSA. Urso added that the European Commission will make an official announcement in the coming days, and recalled that the European IRIS2 system should reach full capacity by 2027.
IRIS2 will include several hundred satellites placed in different orbits. This EU project, whose cost is estimated at €6 billion, should strengthen the technological sovereignty of the community. As reported, the EU contribution to the total cost of the project will be €2.4 billion. In addition, €750 million will come from the European Space Agency, and the rest of the funding is expected to be provided by private companies.
It is the third major European satellite program after Galileo (the EU geolocation system) and Copernicus (the weather system). It is assumed that IRIS2 will be an analogue of the Starlink satellite communication network of American entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX, currently the largest operator of low-orbit satellites.
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