French satellite company Eutelsat (ETL.PA) has chosen aerospace giant Airbus (AIR.PA) 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 (AMZN.O) 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.
