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Even in Europe, there really doesn’t seem to be an alternative to SpaceX.
SpaceX Starlink The internet is taking the world by storm, making some countries nervous.
It still does not reach the scale of terrestrial networks (on Earth, comcast Internet service providers alone generate more than $80 billion annually, and Starlink is growing faster than any of its terrestrial rivals, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. In just five years, as he built a constellation of satellites in 2019 and most of 2020, he grew from zero revenue to a projected $6.8 billion in revenue by 2024.
And Starlink isn’t bound by lines on a map. Unlike most carriers, Starlink boasts the ability to provide internet service anywhere on Earth, transmitted from a constellation of approximately 6,000 satellites in orbit.
It is very convenient for consumers.be CountryBut I’m not 100% sure they like the idea that their satellite communications capabilities could be run by an eccentric American billionaire. Europe, for example, decided to build the “Satellite Resilience, Interconnectivity, and Security Infrastructure,” or IRIS2 project, to compete with SpaceX Starlink.
Image source: Getty Images.
What is IRIS2? Who is developing it?
The European Union first announced IRIS2 in November 2022, with the goal of having the Starlink competitor up and running by 2027. The EU has invited bids from local companies and offered €2.4 billion in funding to jump-start the project. , is estimated to cost €6 billion to complete.
From the space company Eutelsat, airbus (easy 0.58%) Telecommunications providers Deutsche Telekom and Orange were quickly set up to bid for the contract.The problem is they made a bid. As a group — In other words, there was no competition among bidders to keep costs down.
18 months later, that hasn’t changed.
In March, the EU European Commission postponed the award of IRIS2. The committee did not give a reason or say when it wanted to postpone the ruling.However, at the end of last month, Germany handelsblatt The paper reported that the cost estimate for Europe’s so-called “Starlink Alternative” project had ballooned to 12 billion euros, 100% over budget. The lack of competition and the tight deadlines for constellation construction and launch have to do with creating a perfect seller’s market for a single bidder, albeit a hydra-headed one.
For this reason, as well as the Franco-German political reasons alluded to in this paper, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck has told French Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton that he wants to start over and re-bid the entire IRIS2 project. I even told him. Probably to attract more bidders and, if you’re lucky, get a better price.
It remains to be seen whether Germany’s wishes will be granted.But there May If they can put up with it, it could be a solution to the cost problem.
Can SpaceX help?
Consider: The EU wants to use Arianespace’s new Ariane 6 rocket (which has not yet flown) to launch its new IRIS2 satellite (which has not yet been built). Caveats aside, the Ariane 6 has another problem. Ariane’s hopes that it could build a rocket at half the cost of its older Ariane 5 model proved too optimistic. Latest reports estimated that each Ariane 6 launch would cost about $115 million. In comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch cost is advertised at just half his $67 million.
It is said that approximately 170 satellites are required for IRIS2 to function. It’s unclear how big these satellites will be or how many Ariane 6 will be able to carry at one time. That said, given that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has roughly the same payload capacity as Ariane 6, simply switching launch provider from Ariane to SpaceX could cut EU launch costs in half. It seems to be sexual.
To be sure, launch costs are only part of the equation. The cost of building the IRIS2 satellite must also be considered. But again, SpaceX now builds not only rockets but also satellites. Both Starlink satellites and his military grade Starshield satellites. It’s unclear whether SpaceX’s satellites will be as cheap as its rockets. But if that were the case, SpaceX would have a good chance, at least in theory, of building and launching Europe’s much-anticipated Starlink alternative more cheaply than its European rivals.
It may also be possible to build a Starlink alternative at the initial target price of 6 billion euros and then hand over the entire project to Europe on a turnkey basis. In Abracadabra, Europe, Starlink-Alternative will be built by the same company that built Starlink-Classic.
of genuine SpaceX’s replacement turned out to be a satellite communications system that cost more than necessary and arrived years behind schedule. When it comes to doing business in space, SpaceX remains the low-cost leader.
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