Eutelsat Orders 340 Extra OneWeb LEO Broadband Satellites from Airbus

European satellite operator Eutelsat has announced that they’ve ordered a further 340 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellites for their global OneWeb network from Airbus Defence and Space. This is on top of the planned 100 satellite extension that was previously procured in Dec 2024 (due to for delivery in late 2026); representing a total network expansion of 440 satellites.

OneWeb, which readers may recall was originally rescued from bankruptcy by the UK government and Bharti Global before later becoming a part of Eutelsat – with concessions (here), currently has 654 small (c.150kg) first generation (GEN1) LEO platforms in space – orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km (c.600 of them for coverage and the rest for redundancy). Plans also exist to “extend the constellation by a further 100 satellites by 2026” (here).

The news that Eutelsat has now awarded the contract for a further 340 OneWeb satellites to Airbus Defence and Space is not a surprise, since Eutelsat indicated that they intended to add further spacecraft to the constellation in July 2025. But at the time the company hadn’t yet finalised the contract or confirmed who would build them (Airbus is a logical choice given their past involvement with OneWeb).

Crucially, the focus above is on “replacing early batches” of OneWeb’s satellites, which after several years are now said to be “coming to [the] end of operational life“. The availability of the new satellites will thus “assure full operational continuity for customers of the constellation” (LEOs are smaller satellites and only designed to function for a few years before being de-orbited).

However, the new satellites will “integrate technology upgrades“, including advanced digital channelizers, enabling enhanced onboard processing capabilities as well as greater efficiency and flexibility. They will also incorporate optimized architecture designed to maximize long-term operational performance. In addition, Eutelsat intend to use the new batch of satellites to evaluate “opportunities for new business cases, notably through embarkation capabilities for hosted payloads“.

Jean-François Fallacher, Eutelsat CEO, said:

“We are pleased to rely on our long-standing partner, Airbus, for the procurement of these latest satellites. They ensure service continuity for the growing number of our customers and distribution partners benefiting from the unparalleled performance of our ubiquitous, low latency LEO capacity, and enable us to pursue our growth path, building on the 80% topline expansion delivered in 2025.”

OneWeb has previously talked about future GEN2 satellites as including more data capacity (faster broadband speeds), 5G mobile support and, possibly, also the introduction of enhanced navigation and positioning features (GNSS). But it’s currently unclear whether the additions mentioned above will deliver on this, or if they’re more of a mild mid-life upgrade to the existing GEN1 capabilities. Similarly, we don’t yet know if they’ll be placed into a different orbital altitude, which could impact their coverage and performance.

However, the mention of “hosted payloads” above is interesting, particularly since this usually reflects third-party instruments or modules that can “piggyback” on the new satellites (i.e. sharing its bus, power, and data systems). This could enable commercial partners to request the addition of specific features ahead of launch, such as 5G or GNSS etc.

Just as a reminder. The UK government last year agreed to commit a further £140m (€163.3) of public investment to help Eutelsat grow and expand this constellation, which gives them a 10.89% share in the business.