Eutelsat OneWeb: Constellation - General Thread

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1756523752135839812

The OneWeb constellation has been pretty reliable, but looks like OneWeb SL0094 may be being retired, or at least redeployed with a bigger height change than usual

[Teppich]

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has decided to hold off deploying significantly upgraded OneWeb broadband satellites to instead focus on adding continuity of service capacity for customers with long-term contracts, the French fleet operator said Feb. 16.

The shift to a progressive approach for improving low Earth orbit satellite capacity and performance shaves off nearly one third of the company’s previous $4 billion budget for a second-generation constellation, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said during an earnings call.

Berneke said the strategy still leaves Eutelsat open to potential public sector funding from programs such as IRIS˛, Europe’s sovereign broadband project, for financing the development of new technologies that could be added to the constellation.

“But it’s also really to make sure that the timeline works,” she continued, “I mean, it’s very important to us that we keep the continuity of service with our customers in these multi-year contracts and set them up over time, and then bring the new functionality when it’s ready.”

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-scales-back-oneweb-gen-2-upgrade-plan/

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

[DistantTemple]

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service?

By bankrupting the company. (Again)

The Gen 2 sats are either just not ready, or too expensive, etc. Maybe there is still plenty of technical development needed, and considerable R&D funding. Conversely building Gen 1 (Or 1+) replacements is straightforward, affordable, and necessary in case of failures.
My Guess - IAN in the comms industry!

[Asteroza]

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has decided to hold off deploying significantly upgraded OneWeb broadband satellites to instead focus on adding continuity of service capacity for customers with long-term contracts, the French fleet operator said Feb. 16.

The shift to a progressive approach for improving low Earth orbit satellite capacity and performance shaves off nearly one third of the company’s previous $4 billion budget for a second-generation constellation, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said during an earnings call.

Berneke said the strategy still leaves Eutelsat open to potential public sector funding from programs such as IRIS˛, Europe’s sovereign broadband project, for financing the development of new technologies that could be added to the constellation.

“But it’s also really to make sure that the timeline works,” she continued, “I mean, it’s very important to us that we keep the continuity of service with our customers in these multi-year contracts and set them up over time, and then bring the new functionality when it’s ready.”

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-scales-back-oneweb-gen-2-upgrade-plan/

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

Is there a weird interplay between abandoning Gen1 to start Gen2 before any license deadlines? How far is Gen1 from being minimally functional?

[Zed_Noir]

Msnip>
This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

Think Starlink have upgrades or experimental tryouts with a few of their comsats with each production batch. If upgrade/tryout works out then put it in effect with one of the next production batches. If the upgrade/tryout didn't work out, decommission and de-orbit the comsats with the bad upgrade/tryout. There is enough Starlink bandwidth capacity to make up for the reduction in service of the decommissioned comsats with fail experiment.

[cpushack]

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has decided to hold off deploying significantly upgraded OneWeb broadband satellites to instead focus on adding continuity of service capacity for customers with long-term contracts, the French fleet operator said Feb. 16.

The shift to a progressive approach for improving low Earth orbit satellite capacity and performance shaves off nearly one third of the company’s previous $4 billion budget for a second-generation constellation, Eutelsat CEO Eva Berneke said during an earnings call.

Berneke said the strategy still leaves Eutelsat open to potential public sector funding from programs such as IRIS˛, Europe’s sovereign broadband project, for financing the development of new technologies that could be added to the constellation.

“But it’s also really to make sure that the timeline works,” she continued, “I mean, it’s very important to us that we keep the continuity of service with our customers in these multi-year contracts and set them up over time, and then bring the new functionality when it’s ready.”

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-scales-back-oneweb-gen-2-upgrade-plan/

This is a somewhat confusing justification to me - how would launching the Gen 2 sats impact continuity of service? Doesn't seem to be an issue for Starlink for instance

Does Gen 2 require different ground equipment to ensure that continuity of service?
The statement feels like Gen 2 is not really compatible with Gen 1

[edzieba]

If Gen 1 and Gen 2 user terminals lack direct and transparent interoperability (i.e. you do not need twinned terminals, or do not need to switch terminal operation modes, etc) then the statement makes perfect sense. Launching Gen 2 satellites would mean asking customers to buy two terminals and set up failover, or switch to a new terminal and suffer reduced service until a full Gen 2 constellation is in place. If Gen 2 satellites needed extra host equipment to work with both Gen 1 and gen 2 user terminals, that would mean larger satellites and fewer satellites per launch, further increasing time (and cost) to full availability.
Putting the same funding into building out the Gen 1 constellation further means enhancing the service for actual paying customers, which a non-cross-compatible Gen 2 would not - it's no good investing in a future 'better' constellation if by the time you can offer services on it you've gone bust because your existing customers have gotten fed up with your existing service.

[RedLineTrain]

Is OneWeb having problems introducing its service?  I have been keeping my ear to the ground on Starlink and came across the news that Sure in the Falklands has withdrawn its OneWeb service, after several months of issues.  Apparently, these issues have been very vaguely described, causing a loss of confidence.  I assume that the ground station that was installed by Intelsat is quite spendy, at least from the perspective of locations like the Falklands.

https://www.openfalklands.com/there-has-been-quite-a-lot-of-action-since-part-4-was-published-here-are-the-recent-public-announcements-concerning-starlink-in-the-falkland-islands/

[gongora]

That doesn't really say much about the quality of OneWeb's service, just that their local network had problems when they tried to integrate it.  Not necessarily a OneWeb problem.

[RedLineTrain]

That doesn't really say much about the quality of OneWeb's service, just that their local network had problems when they tried to integrate it.  Not necessarily a OneWeb problem.

Agreed, could be an Intelsat issue or a Sure issue.

[StraumliBlight]

Eutelsat selects Airbus Defence and Space to build OneWeb low Earth orbit constellation extension [Dec 17]

Eutelsat Group, has selected Airbus Defence and Space to build the extension of its OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation.

Under a contract signed between the two companies, Airbus will build the first batches of the extension, totalling 100 satellites, with delivery targeted starting end of calendar-2026, ensuring continuity and enhancement of service for current and future customers.

The new satellites will embark key technology upgrades, notably 5G on-ground integration. They will be technologically compatible with Europe’s IRIS² constellation, paving the way for its entry into operational service in 2030, and of which Eutelsat will be the main architect and operator of the LEO segment.

The procurement of these satellites is integrated within Eutelsat’s Capital Expenditure outlook for 2025, and fully compatible with its longer-term financial framework.

Eva Berneke, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat Group commented: "We are relying on our long-standing partner, Airbus, to begin building the first batches of the Next Generation of our OneWeb LEO constellation, which will ensure we deliver continuity of service of the existing constellation with enhanced service features, as we move towards an architecture in line with the IRIS2constellation in 2030. Our in-market experience shows us that the appetite for low Earth orbit capacity is growing rapidly, and we are excited to embark on the next stage of our journey to satisfy that demand.”

[StraumliBlight]

Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap year software glitch after two-day outage [Jan 2]

The software issue was caused by a failure to account for 2024 being a leap year, according to Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington, who told SpaceNews that services were partially restored 36 hours after the disruption began Dec. 31.

“With the service fully restored a full investigation will take place indeed to ensure it does not recur,” she said via email.

[jongoff]

Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap year software glitch after two-day outage [Jan 2]

The software issue was caused by a failure to account for 2024 being a leap year, according to Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington, who told SpaceNews that services were partially restored 36 hours after the disruption began Dec. 31.

“With the service fully restored a full investigation will take place indeed to ensure it does not recur,” she said via email.

Ouch, that's gotta be embarrassing. How many users do they have at this point?

~Jon

[meekGee]

Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap year software glitch after two-day outage [Jan 2]

The software issue was caused by a failure to account for 2024 being a leap year, according to Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington, who told SpaceNews that services were partially restored 36 hours after the disruption began Dec. 31.

“With the service fully restored a full investigation will take place indeed to ensure it does not recur,” she said via email.

Ouch, that's gotta be embarrassing. How many users do they have at this point?

~Jon

Not enough to generate headlines when it went down.

As for the bug itself, I don't know of any quality system that ensures bugs like that don't occur. There are good practices to minimize the risk though through.

[ZachF]

Eutelsat resolves OneWeb leap year software glitch after two-day outage [Jan 2]

The software issue was caused by a failure to account for 2024 being a leap year, according to Eutelsat spokesperson Joanna Darlington, who told SpaceNews that services were partially restored 36 hours after the disruption began Dec. 31.

“With the service fully restored a full investigation will take place indeed to ensure it does not recur,” she said via email.

Ouch, that's gotta be embarrassing. How many users do they have at this point?

~Jon

It cant be that many. The entire network bandwith is equal to about 2 Falcon 9 launches with V2 minis, or more crazily 1/15th of what a single Starship/V3 launch can do.

[king1999]

As for the bug itself, I don't know of any quality system that ensures bugs like that don't occur. There are good practices to minimize the risk though through.

No systems are immune from bugs. But leap year handling is very basic in coding to deal with date and time. It is embarrassing to have service interruption caused by that.

[meekGee]

As for the bug itself, I don't know of any quality system that ensures bugs like that don't occur. There are good practices to minimize the risk though through.

No systems are immune from bugs. But leap year handling is very basic in coding to deal with date and time. It is embarrassing to have service interruption caused by that.

It is (that's the best practices I mentioned), except we're getting the digest of what happened. It can easily be that their side is ok but some other 3rd party system isn't.

But yeah, embarrassing it is.

[StraumliBlight]

Second Quarter And First Half 2024-25 Results & Presentation [Feb 14]

A goodwill impairment €535 million in respect of GEO assets based on the test performed 31 December 2024. It reflects the cash flow forecasts adopted by the Group in its latest five-year plan, embarking the lower future cash flows the Group expects to be able to generate from its existing GEO assets. These take account of increased competition in the connectivity market and a greater than expected decline in demand for video services. This is consistent with the impact already experienced by the Group in lower Video customer renewal rates and more recently, the transfer of demand from GEO to LEO connectivity services.

Clearing road map for OneWeb extension

The confirmation of IRIS2 delivers a road map for Eutelsat to plan the extension of its existing LEO constellation, including technological compatibility with future IRIS2 assets. Following confirmation of the IRIS˛ contract, Eutelsat procured the first batch of 100 LEO satellites, for delivery by end of calendar2026, ensuring continuity and enhancement of service.

Eutelsat estimates the extension of the LEO constellation up to the availability of IRIS˛ will require a further 340 satellites on top of this initial committed 100, equating to a total cost of the extension program in the region of €2-2.2bn euros between FY 2024-25 and FY 2028-29.

As mentioned above, Eutelsat’s contribution to IRIS˛ will be back-end loaded during the period ahead of the availability of the constellation, beginning in FY 2028-29.

[matthewkantar]

If I read the above correctly, they are at €5 million per sat launched?