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The cost of the IRIS2 constellation is anticipated to be 10.6 billion of euros.
It was just recently announced that the European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract worth €10.6 billion ($11.1 billion) to construct the IRIS constellation. It is the most ambitious space program that the European Union has undertaken in the past ten years, and it is intended to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink network. The contract will be in effect for a period of twelve years, and the initial launch is anticipated to take place in the year 2029.
IRIS is an acronym that stands for Resilience, Interconnectivity, and Security via Satellite. It will represent a constellation of about 300 satellites that will be launched by European rockets. Specifically, it is constructed on top of two existing European Union satellite constellations, namely Copernicus and Galileo, which are respectively the most precise GPS system and the largest Earth-observation program. Despite the fact that the majority of the satellites' work capacity will be utilized for the provision of commercial broadband services, a sizeable portion of it is devoted to the management of security and emergency situations. A low earth orbit is intended for the majority of the satellites, but there will also be some that will be placed in a medium earth orbit.
The European Union contributes €6 billion of the total amount of €10.6 billion, while the European Security Agency donates €550 million. All four billion euros that are left over will be contributed by the business sector.
An industrial cooperation led by European satellite operators SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat is known as SpaceRISE. Through this consortium, the European Space Agency (ESA) is collaborating with the European Commission. Deutsche Telekom, Airbus, and Thales are among the other companies that are members, as reported by the Financial Times.
Due to the fact that IRIS is still quite a few years away, Starlink is certainly going to dominate the current market for satellite internet. SpaceX has recently finished the first direct-to-cell satellite constellation, which will make it possible for mobile devices to be connected even in regions that are geographically isolated.
