International Space Summit: Digital Technology at the Heart of Space

More than just a political gathering, the event featured numerous announcements related to artificial intelligence and satellite connectivity. Taken together, these announcements reflect the same trend: orbital infrastructure is now becoming a natural extension of terrestrial computer networks.

A Constellation of 50 AI-Equipped Satellites

Franco-American company Loft Orbital, French company Mistral AI and Emirati company Marlan Space have signed an agreement for the deployment in orbit of a constellation of 50 observation satellites. Funded by the United Arab Emirates to the tune of one billion dollars, this constellation of optical and radar imaging satellites will rely on onboard artificial intelligence capabilities developed by Mistral AI. The objective is to increase onboard processing capacity.

Onboard processing should reduce the time between data acquisition and its use. This architecture makes software and onboard computing capabilities direct components of space systems. Data is no longer simply collected by satellites before being transmitted to the ground: part of its analysis is carried out in orbit, thereby limiting the involvement of ground-based operators faced with growing volumes of data.

Eutelsat Orders 229 OneWeb Satellites from Airbus

Scaling up was another major trend at the summit. Eutelsat announced an order for 229 additional satellites from Airbus for its OneWeb satellite internet constellation, under a contract worth approximately €1 billion. This comes on top of a previous order for 440 satellites placed with Airbus in 2024 and 2025. Deliveries of those satellites are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Ultimately, this new order should enable Eutelsat to maintain and expand its low-Earth orbit network through 2034. As a reminder, the Franco-British group currently operates a constellation of more than 600 satellites, which is expected to expand further, with two Ariane 6 launches scheduled for 2027 and 2028.

A Software-Defined Ground Network

Eutelsat also announced a partnership with French startup Skynopy to develop “Global AKAR,” a ground infrastructure designed for satellite services. The project will combine Eutelsat’s global network of ground stations with the software orchestration and virtualized modem technologies developed by Skynopy. More than 100 operational antennas are expected to be deployed across several sites by the end of 2029, supporting satellites operating in the S, X and Ka bands, particularly for Earth observation, telecommunications and future in-orbit services.

The agreement concerns a component directly linked to the flow of space data. The ground segment is intended to provide operators with a common software interface and enable the remote operation of existing antennas.

With this new infrastructure, Eutelsat and Skynopy are targeting latency of less than three minutes for certain use cases, compared with around one hour using current technologies, as well as throughput of up to 10 Gbit/s, compared with 1 to 2 Gbit/s for existing solutions.

Greater Integration of Satellite Data

The summit was also marked by new commitments surrounding the European IRIS² constellation, designed for secure communications. Thales Alenia Space secured a contract worth approximately €500 million to provide payloads for 330 satellites, while Airbus is set to build an initial layer of at least 66 satellites. The first launches are scheduled from 2029.

The developments observed here show that the space economy is now structured as much around satellites and launch vehicles as around the digital systems surrounding them: onboard computing, artificial intelligence, orchestration software, ground stations and data transmission. These announcements therefore remind us that space infrastructure and the digital world are becoming increasingly closely integrated.