EU strikes 10.6 billion deal to launch homegrown Starlink competitor by 2030 [Video]

Why it matters: After two years of negotiations with the private sector, the European Union has signed a deal to develop and operate a homegrown alternative to satellite Internet connectivity solutions like Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper. While smaller in scale, the IRIS² constellation is expected to spark a competitive web of suppliers for space technologies in Europe.

The European Union has announced it is moving forward with an ambitious space program designed to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink initiative in providing high-speed Internet connectivity to citizens, governments, and businesses in Europe.

Dubbed IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite), the project is an important component of the EU’s space program alongside projects like Copernicus and Galileo that cover Earth observation and navigation systems.

IRIS² was first revealed in 2022 as a public-private partnership to build …