Confusion over IRIS2 bids
September 17, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Airbus Defence & Space and Thales Alenia Space, which were once part of the IRIS2 SpaceRISE consortium bidding for a mega-constellation of low Earth satellites, have submitted separate bids to build the satellites and submitted their proposals to the remaining members of the consortium, according to a report by La Tribune.
The principal remaining members of the consortium are SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat.
La Tribune said that Airbus and Thales have sent separate bids in August to the consortium. SES and Eutelsat have confirmed in recent days that they have submitted their overall ‘best and final’ proposals to the European Commission.
The report added that Brussels has been copied on the offer made by the two major satellite manufacturers. The European Commission is expected to launch this major programme, which is crucial for the entire European space ecosystem (satellite operators, satellite carriers and launchers) in the near future.
“IRIS2 is in essence Europe’s response to Starlink and SpaceX, which could become hegemonic,” stated the report.
The news report suggested there is now “a certain optimism” is blowing about the launch of this long-delayed project, as Antoine Bouvier, the special advisor to Airbus President Guillaume Faury, summed up last week at the Toulouse Space Forum organised by La Tribune, commenting: “Contrary to the ideas that are circulating, this programme is off to a good start.” He believes that “it would be the devil if the operators and Brussels did not come to an agreement”.
La Tribune added: “The separate offers of the two manufacturers, currently under study by the European Commission, have landed in the programme’s budget, according to sources interviewed by La Tribune. In this context, Thales has sent a binding but conditional offer according to the preliminary design review (PDR) and the finalised detailed design (CDR). This is not the case for Airbus. Moreover, each of these offers does not cover the entire technical and industrial spectrum of the IRIS2 programme. Thus, Airbus (platform) and Thales (payload) have apparently remained on their strengths. However, the two manufacturers have not seen the details of their ‘partner’s’ offer. And as they had wished, the two manufacturers returned to their usual role as suppliers to operators.”
What is far from clear is whether the EC can fund the reported €12 million-plus for the project or whether compromises can be made. This compromises could include making use of Europe’s existing assets including the SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat geostationary assets as well as SES’s Orb mPOWER mid-Earth orbiting fleet and Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation. Eutelsat, for example, is already planning its next-generation OneWeb satellites which could be designed to serve the IRIS2 brief.