Eutelsat wants an extra 528 satellites
July 16, 2026
Eutelsat has lodged an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build and launch an extra 528 satellites in its ‘Eutelsat Next’ scheme.
The filing says the satellites will orbit at 1,220 kms (the same as OneWeb) and designed to extend the company’s ability to provide secure, resilient, high-speed, high-capacity communications services around the world.
Eutelsat Next will use Ku-band frequencies for links between the satellites and Ka-band for the links between the satellites and ground-based Earth stations. The filing says that Optical inter-satellite links may also be available.
Each craft will be able of handling up to 140 Ku-band user beams, and cope with on-board processing. There will be 22 satellites in each of 24 orbital planes.
The satellites will operate over almost all of the Earth’s service between the 60 degrees North and 60 degrees South latitudes.
The formal application has been filed by Eutelsat subsidiary WorldVu Satellites Ltd, based in McLean, Virginia, although licensed by France.
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