IN Brief:
- Thales Alenia Space has received an initial approximately €500m order covering governmental payloads for all 330 IRIS² LEO satellites.
- The payload architecture combines Ka and Ku/Ka communications, active antennas, in-orbit routing, interference management, and secure 5G functions.
- Layer One launches are planned for 2029, followed by the 264-satellite second LEO layer from 2030.
Thales Alenia Space has secured an initial order worth approximately €500 million to provide governmental payloads for all 330 low-Earth-orbit satellites in Europe’s IRIS² secure-connectivity constellation.
The Letter of Agreement with Eutelsat forms part of a wider IRIS² contract for Thales Alenia Space that is expected to exceed €3 billion. The company will supply payloads across both LEO layers: 66 Ka-band-only satellites in the first layer and 264 dual Ku/Ka-band spacecraft in the second.
The complete IRIS² architecture currently comprises 348 satellites, including 330 spacecraft in low Earth orbit at around 1,200km and another 18 in medium Earth orbit at around 8,000km. Launches of the first 66 LEO satellites are planned for 2029, with deployment of the 264-satellite second layer beginning from 2030.
Government communications sit at the centre of the programme. IRIS² is intended to provide secure services for civil protection, emergency management, security, and defence users while also supporting commercial connectivity through a European-controlled multi-orbit network.
Secure payloads enter serial production
The LEO industrial structure separates spacecraft-platform manufacture from communications payload production. Airbus Defence and Space will provide the platforms for the first 66 satellites, while Thales Alenia Space develops their payloads. Aerospacelab will build platforms for the subsequent 264 spacecraft, again using Thales governmental payload equipment.
Maintaining one payload architecture across two platform families creates a substantial interface-management task. Mass, electrical power, thermal load, antenna geometry, digital interfaces, software, optical links, and spacecraft data handling all need sufficient standardisation for serial production while accommodating differences between the two satellite buses.
Thales says the governmental payloads will support a secure space-based 5G network using in-orbit traffic routing, active interference management, and end-to-end protected communications. Software-defined active antennas are intended to direct capacity towards specific regions, while a dedicated chipset will support flexibility and reconfiguration.
The result is a communications payload whose behaviour depends increasingly on digital processing and software rather than fixed radio-frequency hardware alone. Design and qualification therefore extend into cybersecurity, software assurance, secure update processes, digital beamforming, thermal management, signal processing, and protection against interference.
Producing payloads for 330 satellites introduces a second challenge: manufacturing rate. European institutional spacecraft have traditionally been produced in relatively small quantities, whereas the IRIS² LEO layers demand repeatable electronics manufacture, configuration control, qualified suppliers, automated test, environmental verification, and component availability across hundreds of units.
The €500 million first order gives that industrialisation a defined commercial starting point. Its scale is substantial, but the expected contract value above €3 billion reflects how much additional development and production activity remains as the complete LEO constellation moves towards deployment.
The LEO work is separate from OHB’s nearly €1 billion contract covering the 18 IRIS² medium-Earth-orbit spacecraft. Together, the awards divide the constellation into identifiable manufacturing programmes rather than leaving IRIS² as a single high-level European infrastructure commitment.
Those separate workstreams still have to produce one network. Satellites, payloads, optical crosslinks, gateways, terminals, key management, terrestrial connections, network software, and security accreditation have to function as an integrated service when governmental customers begin using it.
Multi-orbit architecture can increase communications options by combining different coverage, capacity, and latency characteristics, while hundreds of LEO satellites reduce dependence on any single spacecraft. Resilience will still depend on interference management, gateway availability, cyber protection, terrestrial backhaul, user terminals, and the ability to operate the network under disrupted conditions.
The Thales payload therefore carries a significant part of the programme’s defence value. Active antennas and software-defined communications can move capacity as operational demand changes, while in-orbit routing and interference-management functions are intended to keep traffic moving without treating every satellite as a simple relay.
Maintaining common governmental capability across 330 spacecraft also introduces long-term configuration-control requirements. Hardware revisions, component obsolescence, software changes, security patches, and manufacturing substitutions will have to be introduced without fragmenting the constellation into incompatible production batches.
Thales Alenia Space reported consolidated revenue of €2.36 billion in 2025 and employs more than 8,000 people across 14 European sites. A programme expected to exceed €3 billion over its full scope therefore represents a major multi-year industrial workload, rather than a secondary payload contract within the company’s existing portfolio.
The schedule now concentrates attention on manufacturing execution. The first 66 spacecraft are due to launch in 2029, leaving the industrial partners to complete detailed design, procure components, qualify production hardware, manufacture payloads and platforms, perform environmental testing, and integrate the first flight units over the next three years.
Europe has already defined the political purpose of IRIS² in considerable detail. The more useful evidence will now come from factory output, qualification results, and launch-ready hardware as the 330-unit LEO payload programme moves from agreement into production.
