Overview
- The new purchase brings Airbus’s contracted OneWeb backlog to 440 satellites when combined with a 100-satellite order placed in December 2024.
- Production will occur on a newly installed Airbus line in Toulouse, with deliveries scheduled to start at the end of 2026, which Airbus frames as a step for European industrial sovereignty.
- The spacecraft will add advanced digital channelizers, upgraded onboard processing, and support for hosted payloads to expand flexibility and potential business cases.
- Financial terms were not disclosed; Eutelsat has previously budgeted about €2.0–€2.2 billion for the 2024–2029 extension and raised new equity from major shareholders including the French and UK governments in late 2025.
- The move comes as LEO competition intensifies, with the FCC recently clearing further Starlink Gen2 deployments for SpaceX.