National telecoms authorities, EU policymakers and Barcelona-based satellite company Sateliot met at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss how radio frequencies and fresh money will decide who controls the communications Europe relies on from orbit, with the bloc’s current seven-year space budget expiring in 2027.
Euronews was at the event, organised by Sateliot, whose spacecraft act as mobile phone masts in space, connecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as sensors and trackers where ground networks don’t reach.
The EU’s €14.8 billion space programme for 2021-2027, which funds Galileo, the bloc’s satellite navigation system, and Copernicus, its Earth observation service, ends next year along with the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s seven-year budget.
For 2028-2034, the European Commission wants space funded from a new European Competitiveness Fund, a single pot for strategic industries that would set aside €131 billion for defence and space.
EU leaders are due to discuss the next budget at the European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday.
The Commission’s defence industry and space department, DG DEFIS, closed bids on 29 September for a four-year, €55 million framework contract for management and legal support on three fronts: IRIS², the EU’s planned secure satellite constellation, space surveillance and tracking, which monitors objects in orbit, as well as analysis of the space economy.
More calls under Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme, follow in 2027, while EUSPA, the EU Agency for the Space Programme, and the European Space Agency (ESA), an intergovernmental body separate from the EU, keep running tenders.
Spectrum and sovereignty
Much of the debate centred on spectrum, the radio frequencies that satellites and mobile networks need to transmit.
In May, the Commission proposed a single EU-wide licence for mobile satellite services, which link satellites directly to phones and other devices, in the 2 GHz band, whose current rights expire in May 2027. It would specifically reserve part of the band for European operators and a secure system linked to IRIS².
European Parliament Vice-President Javier López hosted the meeting and the Commission’s digital department, DG CONNECT, was represented by Gerasimos Sofianatos, head of the radio spectrum policy unit.
"This discussion could not come at a better moment considering the current geopolitical tensions and the debate surrounding technological competition", said López in his opening statement.
"A Europe that controls its own network and data is a Europe that can act independently and make its own decisions [...] satellite connectivity is a perfect example of an area where we must achieve strategic control", López added.
Speaking to Euronews after the event, the CEO and co-founder of Sateliot Jaume Sanpera stated that "we have to build and support European champions that can compete globally in the space sector," adding that "today half the world wants to work with European companies in defence and space because we are more predictable."
In September, the ESA selected Sateliot to contribute to IRIS²’s Low-LEO layer, a testing ground in low orbit where new government services are tried out before any are added to the main system. The ESA plans in-orbit test missions from 2027 to 2029.
Through its RESCUE-NET project, Sateliot will also study how 5G connectivity from space can keep public authorities connected when ground networks fail. The ESA signed 18 contracts worth €20 million in total with nearly 80 companies for this phase.
From SpaceX to PLD Space
For small satellites, reaching orbit still largely means flying American.
On 1 October, Sateliot sent five satellites built by Spanish small-satellite maker Alén Space into orbit on Transporter-18, a rideshare mission by Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX that carries spacecraft for many customers, taking its total launched to 11.
The extra satellites double its daily passes over any given point, the company says.
Asked by Euronews whether Europe can expand its fleets without relying on non-European launchers, Sanpera said that he is optimistic and mentioned that there are currently four or five companies in the race to fill that gap.
The CEO of Sanpera also explained that the firm's next launch will be in July 2027, again in collaboration with SpaceX, but the one after that will be with PLD Space, a Spanish launch company based in Elche.
That launch in late 2027 will not only be entirely European, but it will also feature Sateliot's first two Tritó satellites, a larger next generation designed to offer 5G direct-to-device services to ordinary phones.
They will fly on Miura 5, a small orbital rocket built by PLD Space that has yet to fly.
Back in August, PLD won a conditional €158.9 million contract under ESA's European Launcher Challenge, which backs new European rockets, and it plans a debut launch from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Sateliot, which is raising €150 million from investors, comprising €100 million in equity and up to €50 million in debt, aims to grow its constellation to more than 500 satellites by 2028 the latest.