Eutelsat orders 229 additional OneWeb satellites from Airbus

Eutelsat Group CEO Jean-François Fallacher has announced a significant expansion of the company’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. The company has ordered an additional 229 OneWeb satellites from Airbus Defence and Space, bringing the total number of new satellites ordered to 669. This investment, valued at approximately 1 billion euro, is intended to replenish and expand the network through 2034.

Eutelsat aims to maintain a fleet of approximately 1,300 active OneWeb satellites in orbit by 2030. This fleet includes Gen 1.5 units featuring upgraded software-defined capabilities and dedicated defense payloads for the French Ministry of Armed Forces.

The long-term strategy serves as a technical bridge to the European Union’s IRIS² multi-orbit network. Rather than building a proprietary second-generation architecture, Eutelsat is aligning its operational framework to facilitate a planned transition of commercial and government customers to the IRIS² system in the early 2030s.