Thales Alenia Space Wins €500 Million IRIS² Payload Order for LEO Satellites

Thales Alenia Space has signed a Letter of Agreement with Eutelsat to provide the governmental communications payloads for all 330 low Earth orbit satellites in the IRIS² constellation.

The initial order is worth around €500 million, forming part of a broader IRIS² contract for Thales Alenia Space that the company expects to exceed €3 billion. The payload scope covers both LEO layers: 66 Ka-band-only satellites and 264 dual Ku/Ka satellites.

For the first 66-satellite layer, scheduled to begin launching in 2029, Thales Alenia Space will supply the payloads while Airbus Defence and Space provides the satellite platforms. For the second 264-satellite layer, due to begin launching from 2030, Thales Alenia Space will again provide the governmental payloads, with Aerospacelab responsible for the platforms.

The payloads are being designed for native 5G connectivity, in-orbit traffic routing, active interference management and end-to-end secure communications. They will also use active antennas and software-defined technologies, including a dedicated chipset intended to improve capacity and flexibility.

The announcement cements Thales Alenia Space position as one of the IRIS² programme's key payload suppliers, and reinforces the finalized architecture of 348 satellites in total - 330 LEO and 18 MEO, with the LEO segment divided between Ka-only and dual-band Ku/Ka spacecraft.