Eutelsat has ordered another 229 OneWeb satellites from Airbus Defence and Space to reinforce and renew its low-Earth-orbit connectivity constellation.
The Authorisation to Proceed covers initial industrial work and supplements a previous procurement of 440 satellites, taking the total number of new-generation OneWeb spacecraft to be produced by Airbus to 669.
Manufacturing will take place at Airbus’s Toulouse facility, where production of the earlier batches is already under way. The first satellites from the 440-unit order are due to be delivered and launched shortly.
The new spacecraft will progressively replace early OneWeb satellites approaching the end of their operational lives. They will incorporate improved digital channelisers for greater onboard processing capability, efficiency and flexibility, while also being able to carry hosted payloads alongside their main Ku-band mission.
OneWeb currently operates more than 600 satellites across 12 orbital planes at an altitude of approximately 1,200 kilometres, providing global high-speed, low-latency connectivity. Eutelsat said the expanded replenishment programme, together with the European IRIS² constellation, would strengthen its role in Europe’s sovereign connectivity infrastructure.