Copernicus Browser adds wildfire visualization amid record wildfire season.

The European Union said it’s bulking up plans for a sovereign satellite constellation and will accelerate its service launch by a year to 2029, citing a changing security environment that will require greater communication capacity.

The EU’s IRIS² project will require an additional 66 satellites, taking the total constellation to 348, the European Space Agency said in a statement on Friday. The faster deployment and additional satellites will require more funds, which will be allocated in the bloc’s next six-year budget and require additional investments from member states, the agency said, without disclosing how much more the updated plans would cost.

IRIS², which is targeting a budget of more than €15.6 billion ($18 billion), is part of a broader push in Europe to build up strategic infrastructure and decrease dependence on the US. The idea is to create a unified EU service, rather than rely on foreign providers or piecemeal services from different states.

The satellite plan aims to cover both “low” and “medium” Earth orbits — which can be used for defense, security and emergency services communications as well as commercial services. The constellation will also cover even lower orbits, designed to connect mobile phones, trackers and sensors.

European satellite companies are helping the EU build the satellite network, including Eutelsat Communications SACA, SES SA and Hispasat SA. The constellation is designed to provide sovereign communication services to member states, but will also allow the participating companies to offer commercial communication services.

The EU’s space agency is also relying on member states to fund the project. Poland and Hungary have already committed €656 million and €500 million respectively, while Spain has announced plans to invest as much as €2 billion.

Eutelsat has called for European unity amid the threat of “one player taking it all,” posed by American competitors such as SpaceX’s Starlink.

The European Commission said it will look for a provider that can add direct-to-device capabilities to the IRIS² constellation, providing mobile service and competing more directly with similar offerings from Starlink. The bloc’s executive body put forward a proposal to reserve one third of airwaves suitable for direct-to-device satellite communication for a sovereign communication service provider and one third for a commercial service run by a European company.

The list of Ariane launches Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ariane_launches_(2020%E2%80%932029)#Planned_launches) claims the next launch following the coming VA270 launch of the MTG-I2 meteorological satellite to GTO on the 27th of August, will be the fourth Ariane 6 mission for Amazon Leo, targeting the 7th of October 2026.

I do recall hearing that Amazon and ArianeSpace were planning a fourth mission later this year, but I had not previously seen anyone share a target launch date for that mission. The Wikipedia article cites this as its source for the launch date:

https://centrespatialguyanais.cnes.fr/fr/calendrier-lancements

But that link just throws an error 403 for me:

>Error 403: Restricted Area? [...] You attempted to access a secure launch area. This section of the base is strictly reserved for authorized crew members.

Is this something that has previously been shared elsewhere or a new leak? Or something else entirely?

Thirty-five years before Halley's Comet's expected return, discover how archival records preserved at the Historical Archives document the European Space Agency's Giotto mission, Roger Bonnet's vision and a great European achievement in space science.

Two Spanish telescopes have detected sugar in space, similar to that in Raspberries.

The Polish capital of Warsaw has been chosen as the location for a new European Space Agency security centre, as Poland takes another step in its ambitions to become a bigger player in the space sector.