Starlink rival Eutelsat plans OneWeb expansion after €1 billion satellite order

FILE PHOTO: The logo of European satellite operator Eutelsat is displayed at the company’s headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, March 30, 2026. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Sept 10 (Reuters) - ⁠Satellite operator Eutelsat said on Thursday it will replenish and expand ⁠its OneWeb network through 2034 after the Franco-British operator signed a ‌deal with Airbus for 229 additional low Earth orbit satellites.

The new order, representing an investment of €1 billion ($1.16 billion), will be added to the 440 Airbus-built satellites ordered in 2024 and 2025. ​Deliveries of those previous orders are expected to ⁠begin in the fourth quarter.

After raising ⁠roughly €5 billion to weather the financial strain stemming from its $3.4 billion merger with ⁠OneWeb, ‌Eutelsat's expansion plans aim to bolster the company's ambition of challenging Elon Musk's currently dominant Starlink.

Eutelsat is considered strategically important by the ⁠French and British governments, because it operates the only ​low Earth orbit satellite ‌network outside Starlink, providing secure communications and broadband internet services.

The agreement ⁠extends Eutelsat's low ​Earth orbit fleet roadmap beyond previous plans, under which the company expected to spend about €2 billion to procure and launch the 440 satellites by 2030.

OneWeb currently comprises more ⁠than 600 satellites, though CEO Jean-François Fallacher told ​Reuters in March that Eutelsat expected its fleet to exceed 1,000 "very soon".

Starlink, meanwhile, has more than 11,000 satellites in orbit, althoughOneWeb requires far fewer to provide global ⁠coverage, because its satellites operate at a higher altitude and the company focuses on government, enterprise and telecom customers rather than mass-market consumers.

The 229 additional satellites are intended to ensure service continuity until the commercial deployment of IRIS², the ​European Union's planned secure communications constellation of 348 ⁠satellites, expected to enter service around the end of the decade.

In a separate announcement ​at the Paris space summit on Thursday, ‌Eutelsat — also a SpaceX customer — said it had ​booked twoAriane launch missions to carry OneWeb satellites in 2027 and 2028.

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Joe Bavier)

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资料照片：2026年3月30日，欧洲卫星运营商Eutelsat的标志在位于法国巴黎附近伊西莱穆利诺的公司总部展出。路透社/冈萨洛·富恩特斯/资料照片

9 月 10 日（路透社）——法国-英国卫星运营商 Eutelsat 周四表示，在与空中客车公司签署协议，增购 229 颗低地球轨道卫星后，该公司将持续补充和扩展其 OneWeb 网络至 2034 年。

这份新订单代表着10亿欧元（11.6亿美元）的投资，将添加到2024年和2025年订购的440颗空客制造的卫星中。此前订单的交付预计将于第四季度开始。

在筹集了约 50 亿欧元以应对与 OneWeb 34 亿美元合并带来的财务压力后，Eutelsat 的扩张计划旨在增强该公司挑战埃隆·马斯克目前占据主导地位的 Starlink 的雄心。

欧洲通信卫星公司被法国和英国政府视为具有战略意义，因为它运营着除星链之外唯一的低地球轨道卫星网络，提供安全的通信和宽带互联网服务。

该协议将欧洲通信卫星公司（Eutelsat）的低地球轨道卫星群路线图扩展到了之前的计划之外，根据之前的计划，该公司预计到 2030 年将花费约 20 亿欧元来采购和发射 440 颗卫星。

OneWeb 目前拥有 600 多颗卫星，但其首席执行官 Jean-François Fallacher 在 3 月份告诉路透社，Eutelsat 预计其卫星数量“很快”将超过 1000 颗。

与此同时，星链在轨卫星数量超过 11,000 颗，而 OneWeb 只需较少的卫星即可提供全球覆盖，因为其卫星运行在更高的高度，而且该公司专注于政府、企业和电信客户，而不是大众市场消费者。

新增的 229 颗卫星旨在确保服务连续性，直到欧盟计划部署的由 348 颗卫星组成的 IRIS² 安全通信星座投入商业运营，预计将于本十年末投入使用。

在周四举行的巴黎太空峰会上，Eutelsat（也是 SpaceX 的客户）在另一份声明中表示，该公司已预订了两次阿丽亚娜火箭发射任务，分别在 2027 年和 2028 年将 OneWeb 卫星送入太空。

（Gianluca Lo Nostro报道；Joe Bavier编辑）

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