Eutelsat OneWeb: Constellation - General Thread

[Kiwi53]

It appears due to recent US-Ukraine shenanigans, europe is waking up to the need for a non-US centric system of similar capability, possibly beyond IRIS2. Is this enough of a tailwind to get OneWeb up to a new level? Will it perhaps provide some anchor customer needs for new european launchers?

The problem with OneWeb & Europe is that the UK Government holds a significant portion (a "Golden Share" IIRC) of OneWeb, and the UK has declared itself to be proudly Not Part of Europe through Brexit. This puts OneWeb and the EU in a difficult spot, since the EU definitely wants an independent European system, but OneWeb isn't considered European enough.
That is of course only a political problem, but there don't seem to be too many political solutions a.t.m.:
  * The Brits could undo Brexit, but that seems extraordinarily unlikely
  * The EU Commission could declare OneWeb to be "European enough", but that would involve too many Eurocrats & EU politicians 'swallowing a dead rat' to make that IMO a likely outcome
  * Some sort of compromise, for example maybe the UK could rejoin ESA or some such, that could allow enough political wriggle room to allow practicality to overcome principle.

It's complicated

[Jrcraft]

It appears due to recent US-Ukraine shenanigans, europe is waking up to the need for a non-US centric system of similar capability, possibly beyond IRIS2. Is this enough of a tailwind to get OneWeb up to a new level? Will it perhaps provide some anchor customer needs for new european launchers?

The problem with OneWeb & Europe is that the UK Government holds a significant portion (a "Golden Share" IIRC) of OneWeb, and the UK has declared itself to be proudly Not Part of Europe through Brexit. This puts OneWeb and the EU in a difficult spot, since the EU definitely wants an independent European system, but OneWeb isn't considered European enough.
That is of course only a political problem, but there don't seem to be too many political solutions a.t.m.:
  * The Brits could undo Brexit, but that seems extraordinarily unlikely
  * The EU Commission could declare OneWeb to be "European enough", but that would involve too many Eurocrats & EU politicians 'swallowing a dead rat' to make that IMO a likely outcome
  * Some sort of compromise, for example maybe the UK could rejoin ESA or some such, that could allow enough political wriggle room to allow practicality to overcome principle.

It's complicated

I agree, just noting that the UK is still an ESA member state. ESA is not an agency nor under the jurisdiction of the EU.

[russianhalo117]

It appears due to recent US-Ukraine shenanigans, europe is waking up to the need for a non-US centric system of similar capability, possibly beyond IRIS2. Is this enough of a tailwind to get OneWeb up to a new level? Will it perhaps provide some anchor customer needs for new european launchers?

The problem with OneWeb & Europe is that the UK Government holds a significant portion (a "Golden Share" IIRC) of OneWeb, and the UK has declared itself to be proudly Not Part of Europe through Brexit. This puts OneWeb and the EU in a difficult spot, since the EU definitely wants an independent European system, but OneWeb isn't considered European enough.
That is of course only a political problem, but there don't seem to be too many political solutions a.t.m.:
  * The Brits could undo Brexit, but that seems extraordinarily unlikely
  * The EU Commission could declare OneWeb to be "European enough", but that would involve too many Eurocrats & EU politicians 'swallowing a dead rat' to make that IMO a likely outcome
  * Some sort of compromise, for example maybe the UK could rejoin ESA or some such, that could allow enough political wriggle room to allow practicality to overcome principle.

It's complicated

I agree, just noting that the UK is still an ESA member state. ESA is not an agency nor under the jurisdiction of the EU.

EUSPA is the agency the UK cannot partake in as a non EU member but could to some degree if it seeks observer status as a partner agency which is offered to those eligible to join the EU within the European continent.

[edzieba]

  * The EU Commission could declare OneWeb to be "European enough", but that would involve too many Eurocrats & EU politicians 'swallowing a dead rat' to make that IMO a likely outcome

OneWeb is wholly owned by Eutelsat, and Eutelsat is French.
The UK has retained some preferential agreements for Oneweb specifically (mainly in the form of a veto on certain changes such as moving OneWeb's HQ) but in terms of 'invest more into Oneweb and roll out more satellites to grow capacity' the UK and EU nations are entirely aligned. And it would still be vastly cheaper for the EU to buy out the UK's 'golden share' (or just buy out the veto component and replace it with normal shares) than set up a EU version from scratch.