ESA mulls €750m commitment to satellite broadband
January 20, 2022
By Chris Forrester
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) director general Josef Aschbacher has asked its 22-members to stump up an initial €750 million to fund a European low-Earth orbiting satellite constellation in order to secure broadband connectivity.
The proposal, which will be discussed officially at ESA’s ministerial conference later this year, would be part of a wider budget of government funding for a series of space proposals. The end-price for any broadband constellation would be much more than €750 million.
The EU has been examining a pair of studies for the Europe-wide broadband scheme.
A January 18th briefing from ESA officials delivered updates on a few stumbling blocks including whether the UK would take part in a number of space-related projects.
Key to future funding of a European satellite broadband initiative are the EC’s member states and their willingness to back a project. The EU, before Christmas, said they had asked a consortium to re-examine proposals for a European scheme.