How The EU Rewards Losers (Eutelsat/Arianespace) In Its LEO Satellite Contracts

What is amazing is how the EU consistently rewards European companies that failed to anticipate technological change like Eutelsat and Arianespace. Its French executives were too busy with two hour lunches, Bordeaux wines, and crème brûlée to realize that LEO satellites were the future. See the quotes below. 😉

Eutelsat is one of the prime beneficiaries of the IRIS2 project which involves a 330 LEO and 18 MEO constellation that will only cost $18 billion. We all know that Starlink could have done the project for under a billion dollars. A Starlink V3 satellite costs $1.2 million to manufacture and provides 1 terabit download throughput. The point is that the European satellite industry is grossly inefficient. It lacks the economies of scale in production. Hence a Fortress Europe approach to technology is likely to be super expensive. EU procurement often rewards mediocrity because it is trying to create sovereign infrastructure in areas where the Americans dominate and won fair and square. 

Arianespace, another French executive dominated company, shared the same arrogance. It called reusable rockets 'a dream' and even as late as 2024 dismissed Starship as a competitor for space freight. Although Starship is still under development, SpaceX' Falcon 9 has clearly outperformed by any metric ArianeSpace. 

Screenshot of Interview With ArianeSpace Execs Dismissing Reusable Rockets & SpaceX

Screenshot of Eutelsat Execs Downplaying The Role of LEO Satellites


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