EU’s rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink struggles to take off
- by Politico Europe
- Jul 25, 2024
- 0 Comments
- 0 Likes Flag 0 Of 5
SpaceX has thousands of Starlink satellites in orbit. | Miguel Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images
The war in Ukraine helped make the case for IRIS² originally given the importance of satellite communication systems in the early months following Russia's invasion. But the desire to bolster defense capabilities means frugal capitals aren't wild about being bounced into paying extra for a mega satellite system too.
The European Space Agency, which acts as a technical arm on big EU satellite programs like Galileo and Copernicus, declined to comment on whether it will request significant extra financing for IRIS² from its member countries at its own multi-year funding system next year.
Big countries have already made their concerns clear.
Germany's Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said in a stinging letter to Breton earlier this year that the "exorbitant" IRIS² program should be put on ice and reconsidered.
If a deal can’t be reached between the SpaceRise consortium and the Commission by the fall then the idea of building and operating IRIS² as a public-private partnership will likely need to be rethought entirely, two of the officials said.
“Such a large-scale program is difficult to get off the ground,” said Christophe Grudler, a French MEP who has lead work on IRIS² for the European Parliament, calling the decision from Airbus and Thales Alenia Space to exit the top team “disrespectful."
Advertisement
Please first to comment
Related Post
Stay Connected
Tweets by elonmuskTo get the latest tweets please make sure you are logged in on X on this browser.
Sponsored
Popular Post
Tesla: Buy This Dip, Energy Growth And Margin Recovery Are Vastly Underappreciated
28 ViewsJul 29 ,2024