Freezz Italia Selected for ESA Study of VLEO D2D Architecture for IRIS²

Freezz Italia has been awarded an ESA contract to further develop its Friisat Very Low Earth Orbit satellite architecture as a potential future component of the Low-LEO layer of Europe's IRIS² secure connectivity programme.

The company will lead a European industrial consortium during the Consolidation Phase of ESA's IRIS² Low-LEO Pre-Operational and De-Risk Activities. The work will adapt Friisat's existing commercial design to potential IRIS² requirements, covering system architecture, interfaces, security, service validation and a roadmap towards possible pre-operational and in-orbit demonstrations. Selection for the study does not mean Friisat has been incorporated into the operational IRIS² constellation.

Friisat is designed for broadband direct-to-device connectivity using 3GPP 5G and future 6G NTN standards. Freezz is pursuing VLEO partly because operating closer to Earth improves the satellite-to-device link budget, potentially making broadband connections to conventional terrestrial devices easier than from higher orbits. The approach brings its own engineering challenges, however, including increased atmospheric drag and the need to maintain satellites at unusually low altitudes.

The contract builds on earlier Friisat development supported through ESA's ARTES programme. Freezz will work with a consortium including Almatech, Celeste Space, Celeste Technologies, Gradiant, IngeniArs, Maiolini Space, Nautilus, RF Microtech and SpacePNT. A subsequent implementation phase could progress selected concepts towards in-orbit validation, but would be subject to a separate procurement and further programme decisions.

The award also adds another architecture to ESA's emerging Low-LEO D2D experimentation around IRIS². Alongside recently selected work such as Sateliot's RESCUE-NET project and Indra Space’s work on CELESTE, Freezz's study indicates that ESA is using the de-risk programme to evaluate multiple technologies and orbital approaches before determining which capabilities could eventually augment the operational IRIS² system.