SES commits up to €1.35 billion to build IRIS2 MEO satellites
SES
SES cleared a key IRIS² milestone and confirmed up to €1.35 billion to build 18 medium-orbit satellites for the EU program.
what happened
SES said Aug. 7 it completed Rendez-vous 1 (RDV1), a milestone in the EU's IRIS² secure-connectivity program, confirming its expected capital commitment for the MEO segment at up to €1.35 billion. The commitment funds design, payload construction, assembly, integration and testing of 18 MEO satellites at SES's facilities in Luxembourg, with service entry targeted for 2030. SES said the commercial structure is designed to deliver an internal rate of return meeting or exceeding its 10% hurdle rate, and that it retains commercial monetization rights to about 90% of the MEO constellation's operational capacity.
why it matters
The milestone unlocks active hardware fabrication and ground-segment work under IRIS², Europe's flagship sovereign satcom program, and represents SES's largest stated capital commitment to the MEO segment to date. With roughly 90% of capacity commercially exploitable, the deal gives SES a new long-term revenue base across government, mobility, enterprise and cloud-connectivity markets once the satellites enter service in 2030.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- SES
- Category
- constellation
- Impact
- major
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-08-07
- Published
- 2026-08-12 05:30 UTC