Eight new satellites coming online doesn’t sound like much these days but it marks a new sustained effort by Europe toward digital sovereignty and less reliance on American prowess in space. The eight new satellites from five different countries create a new secure and encrypted satellite communications network called Govsatcom. The development signals an increase in European space operations and raises the bar for digital sovereignty but the initiative faces strong headwinds from a more dominant and mature space industry in the U.S.
Govsatcom may have become operational just in time amidst reports that two Russian satellites have approached European geostationary birds in recent months to perhaps intercept communications from as many as 17 European satellites transmitting unencrypted data. The two Russian satellites, Luch-1 and Luch-2, are likely focused on the command transmissions between the satellite and ground stations. That data controls operations like low-thrust engines. False commands could affect satellite orbits, hurling them out into space or crashing into Earth. Russia last year launched two additional satellites, Cosmos 2589 and Cosmos 2590 with maneuvering capabilities that have caused alarm among satellite operators. Luch-1 disintegrated into fragments on January 30 after a plume of gas was detected by ground-based telescopes. Govsatcom is scheduled to become a 290 satellite constellation by 2029 whose purpose is to reduce dependency on Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
Govsatcom is just the latest of European satellite launches being planned. Germany, for example, says it will spend $41 billion to develop a military satellite architecture by 2030. The move is likely prompted by the success of Finland’s all-weather Iceye synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite. Iceye is supplying spy imagery to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia with targeting images available to Ukraine within hours as opposed to the multiple days required to obtain similar data from the American government. Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands plan to acquire Iceye satellites as production swiftly increases. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom expects to have a new Airbus-built Skynet 6A military satellite online by next year.
On the commercial side, one of the more ambitious plans on the drawing board comes from a startup called Univity. The company aims to put a constellation of very low-earth orbit (VLEO) satellites for use by the automotive industry. The idea is to allow OEMs and tier one suppliers to use space-based connectivity as a simple 5G service for OTA updates to video applications, for example.
“Space is finally becoming a natural extension of the mobile network,” said Charles Deflieux, CEO and founder of Univity in a company press release. Univity, which enjoys the tacit support of the French government, hopes to have a constellation in space between 2028 and 2030.
Communication via low earth orbit is appealing because of its ability to allow remote or rural access as well as circumvent political disruptions. AT&T says it will tap into Amazon’s LEO satellite for just that purpose. Amazon is experiencing some hiccups in its launch schedule but the ultimate plan is to have a LEO constellation of 3,236 satellites to rival Starlink. Amazon Leo primarily will be oriented toward business customers. Amazon LEO uses a special “Ultra” antenna for signal reception designed to support 1-gig download and 400 Mbit/s upload speeds. Astronomers are crying foul as brightness measurements of Amazon LEO satellites already in orbit more often than not exceed recommended levels, disrupting observations while also distracting from the aesthetic appreciation of the night sky, says the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
A mature U.S space program means that satellite services like Amazon LEO and Starlink are essentially super-platforms that are able to vertically integrate rocket launches, satellite construction, cloud access and AI software. Nonetheless, Europe in particular is increasingly cognizant of its status as a “digital colony” dependent on American tech and subject to the whims of the Trump administration. The digital sovereignty flag is being run up the mast and it will wave in space.
