(Reuters) -French satellite company Eutelsat has chosen aerospace giant Airbus to build 100 small satellites for its OneWeb constellation extension, with deliveries to begin around the end of 2026.
OneWeb is a European constellation of low Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites acquired by Eutelsat in 2023 to rival the likes of Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.
Airbus has so far built built 648 small satellites for OneWeb.
The satellites will also be technologically compatible with a planned 10.6 billion euro ($11.13 billion) secure European satellite constellation called IRIS², due to enter service in 2030.
Eutelsat did not disclose financial terms of the Airbus deal.
(Reporting by Dimitri RhodesEditing by David Goodman)
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