2024-12-16 16:14:00
THE European Union revives its plans to launch a constellation of 264 satellites which provides access to Internet insurance for governments and public organizations. This Tuesday, the European Commission has awarded the necessary contracts for the development of this initiative which aims to keep up with rapidly growing commercial services such as StalinkFrom Elon Musk.
After years of delays and cost overruns, the communications system IRIS² Its mission is to guarantee fast and encrypted access to the broadband network in remote and unreachable places by the network optical fiberto the benefit of both intelligence agencies and ordinary citizens. Therefore, they will be equipped with sensors surveillance and will enable secure military communications.
The Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security Infrastructure via Satellite – the title to which the acronym IRIS² corresponds – was supposed to start operating in 2024, but now its construction should start in 2029 and be completed in 2031. Its cost is estimated at 10 .6 billion euros.
Strategic infrastructures
“In an increasingly complex geopolitical world, it is essential to ensure resilient, secure and fast government communications,” explained Josef Aschbacher, director general of European Space Agencyin a statement. The organization, made up of 22 countries, will be in charge of managing this new strategic infrastructure.
The third major space project of EU follows in the wake of two pioneering initiatives: the Galileo navigation system, something like the GPS European Union, and Copernicus, the observation network that allows us to track the Earth to mitigate its effects climate change.
International competition
The IRIS² systems will be implemented and commercially exploited for 12 years by the companies SES, Eutelsat and the Spanish company Hispasat, which will contribute 4.1 billion euros. The EU will contribute 6 billion euros and the European Space Agency with another 550 million.
The project was affected by tensions between the countries. Germany, which invests the most in the European Space Agency, has expressed concern about possible cost overruns. The French Airbus and the Franco-Italian one Thales Alenia Spacetwo of Europe’s main satellite manufacturers have withdrawn from the SpaceRise consortium for fear that the project will lead to financial losses, even if they will participate as suppliers.
Even so, the announcement of Brussels This is an attempt to conquer Europe’s so-called “digital sovereignty”, after European manufacturers found it difficult to compete with Starlink, the increasingly influential system developed by SpaceXwhich already controls almost two thirds of the satellites in orbit, but also to the proliferation of other satellite Internet networks such as Kuiper, from Amazon.
#European #Union #launches #constellation #cybersecure #satellites #resist #Musk