Eutelsat reports that it has awarded Airbus Defence and Space a contract to build a further 340 OneWeb low Earth orbit satellites, to expand its LEO connectivity services.
Combined with a previous order placed in 2024, the total number of satellites procured under the programme now stands at up to 440. Manufacturing will take place at Airbus’s Toulouse facility, with deliveries scheduled to begin from the end of this year.
Eutelsat said the new satellites will replace early batches reaching end of operational life, while introducing technology upgrades intended to improve efficiency, flexibility and long-term performance, with potential for hosted payload services.
The OneWeb constellation currently has more than 600 satellites flying in 12 synchronised orbital planes 1,200km above the Earth.
“We are pleased to rely on our long-standing partner, Airbus, for the procurement of these latest satellites,” said Jean-François Fallacher, Eutelsat Chief Executive Officer.
“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.”
