Financial 'stretch' for UK to join Europe's Starlink rival, says minister

Possibility of joining IRIS² remote as Britain grapples with fiscal squeeze

A UK minister has told Parliament that joining Europe's answer to Starlink — Elon Musk's satellite-based mobile internet service — would be a "stretch" given the nation's current financial challenges.

In December last year, the EU signed a contract with the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²) initiative, a multi-orbital constellation of 290 satellites, with the SpaceRISE consortium made up of European satellite network operators SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat. The total cost of the 12-year project is set to be €10.6 billion, with €6 billion from the EU, €550 million from the European Space Agency (ESA) and more than €4 billion from the private sector.

The UK missed out on the early stages of the project after formally leaving the EU in 2020. However, the UK has become more aligned with EU science and technology projects since rejoining its €100 billion (£86 billion, $107 billion) Horizon sci-tech funding program. Future funding for IRIS² beyond 2027 will be subject to the adoption of successor programmes by the European Parliament and Council alongside the availability of appropriations, leaving open the possibility that the UK could join as a third-party country.

Speaking to the House of Lords' UK Engagement with Space Committee, Chris Bryant, science minister, was quick to quash hopes of the UK joining the program and finding alternatives to Starlink. Departments were still grappling with the recent settlements from the UK multi-year spending, as budgets are squeezed between cutting services, raising taxes and increasing borrowing, following more than a decade of austerity and the Covid crisis.

IRIS² is unlikely to be high up the list of priorities, he told the UK's second Parliamentary chamber. "It is going to be quite a stretch for us to get to our existing commitments, let alone to add new commitments, financially."

While Bryant said he understood the desire to join IRIS², "sometimes that comes up against the hard reality of money."

In December last year, Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: "IRIS² is not just a technological achievement — it is a testament to Europe's ambition and unity. This cutting-edge constellation will protect our critical infrastructures, connect our most remote areas and increase Europe's strategic autonomy."

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) said the constellation would offer secure communication services to the EU and its member states as well as broadband connectivity for European citizens, private companies and governmental authorities.

It added that IRIS² "will put an end to dead zones in Europe as well as the whole of Africa using the constellation's North-South orbits through a resilient and ultra-secure space and ground-based system." ®