New European Space Initiative Revealed in Paris

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyern, stands beside French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders at the International Space Summit in Paris (European Union).

The European Commission announced the satellite orders for the European Union’s sovereign satellite constellation—the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS)—at the International Space Summit in Paris, on September 10. Macron led the conference, pushing for European satellite sovereignty. Among the leading companies, Belgian company Aerospacelab received €2.4 billion from the project and aims to build 264 satellites.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western sanctions led Russia to cut off all cooperation between any European space agency and Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency. This split left the European Space Agency without access to Soyuz launches, triggering an emergency as Western Europe was left without any subsequent launch pads for new satellites and missions up to the International Space Station (ISS). Furthermore, Europe’s lack of extraterrestrial satellites revealed a dependence on Elon Musk's Starlink, which became critical to Ukraine’s battlefield connectivity.

The International Space Summit, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Grand Palais on September 9 and 10 and co-chaired by Germany, brought together representatives from 120 nations and presented over 50 projects. According to Politico, pressure from President Trump led to notable absences from Aerospace companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, and Starcloud. This pressure came as the White House reportedly feared that the presence of US firms would signal endorsement of the summit’s broader push for European strategic autonomy.

The IRIS satellite initiative was announced at the conference, and later confirmed in Brussels, signaling broader European cohesion behind the project. In total, 348 satellites are planned to be built, up from an original scope of 290. According to Le Monde, the project will cost between €15.6 and €15.7 billion. Among the companies involved in the contract, Belgian aerospace company Aerospacelab is responsible for producing 264 low-Earth-orbit, or LEO, satellites. This relatively young company will therefore be responsible for a majority of the project, as other companies, such as Airbus’ Defense and Space department, have been charged solely with building 66 military satellites.

The initiative, however, remains limited. Industry skepticism has arisen, as telecompanies such as France's Orange and Germany’s Deutsche Telekom have signaled they would adopt IRIS only if its service proves commercially competitive. This could be difficult given the scale of the constellation: IRIS is expected to operate 348 satellites compared to Starlink’s 10,900. Despite the limitations, analysts have framed the initiative as a broader choice for Europe to shift away from the American-dominated space economy and attempt to establish itself as a larger, more independent power.