The actions of the Franco-British satellite operator Etelsat shot earlier this week in the Paris Stock Exchange due to the possibility of replacing Starlink in the Ukraine War and In the context of the European rearme. There is no doubt that Europe will seek to recover its autonomy in space, but there is no company capable of replicating Starlink in the short or medium term.
Eutelsat takes advantage of the geopolitical pulse. Between Monday and Wednesday, the Eutelsat titles came to quintupply their value, adding 1,000 million euros to the stock market capitalization, which came from historical minimums and had even been degraded to “garbage bonus” by Moody’sdue to the slow performance of OneWeb and high investment needs.
The sudden interest, mainly promoted by retail investors and positions in short, dates back to February 28, when a heated public dispute between Volodimir Zelenski and Donald Trump led the United States to pause military aid to kyiv, with cutting threats Starlink satellite Internet service if Ukraine did not granted access to their minerals.
While European governments were looking for an alternative, Eutelsat’s executive director said They would need “months, no years” To provide Ukraine as many satellites as Starlink, which ended up firing the company’s action (over the days, Relajusted down). However, reality is always more complex than a headline.
How Starlink became vital for Ukraine. When Russia left conventional satellite networks out of service (VIASAT, Iridium, Immarsat…), Starlink gave a crucial advantage to Ukraine. The company directed by Elon Musk not only had the capacity to send more terminals and antennas to the front, but was more resistant to cyber attacks and electronic interference, The famous “Jamming”.
The explanation is that Starlink is a constellation of thousands of satellites in low orbit that turn the earth every 90 minutes, so different satellites are going through the sky to serve a certain area. Russian cyberbrains and Jamming were more effective with companies that have geostationary satellites and remain fixed at 36,000 km altitude.
Oneweb, the European alternative to Starlink. Since Ooneweb acquired, Eutelsat controls approximately 630 satellites in low orbitbacked by 35 geostationary satellites. It is the only operational global constellation beyond Starlink, although China has begun to also display yours.
Unlike Starlink, whose main business is final consumers, Oneweb It has focused on military, governmental, maritime, aviation, industrial, logistics and operators. The reason is the enormous scale difference: Spacex has a 10 -time density of satellites, which allows you to serve more simultaneous users with Starlink.
Everything is reduced to rockets. Europe just recover your autonomous access to space With the definitive entry of the Vega-C rockets and Ariane 6. But these pitchers are not reusable: each mission requires a new one, which prevents its use to display large satellite constellations. Not only would it be profitable: it would be logistically impossible, since the rockets in low orbit They have to be spare parts every few years.
On the other hand, the Falcon 9 of Spacex is partially reusable. The company routinely recovers the propeller and halves of the Cofia, and thanks to that competitive advantage can launch two Starlink missions every week. In total, Spacex has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites, of which more than 7,000 are still in orbit. Falcon 9 is also One of the rockets that have put in orbit the satellites of Oneweb/Eutelsat.
This situation is not going to be resolved until the European private industry, with ESA investments, has its first reusable rockets ready. The best positioned company is the French Arianegroup, which for decades has had the Duopoolio de launchers from Europe next to the Italian Avio. But its subsidiary Maiaspace is developing a relatively small rocket: Maia, with the capacity to put between 500 and 2,500 kg in Heliosíncrona orbit. In that range will compete with Miura 5 From the Spanish PLD Space.
Image | Oneweb
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