Aerospacelab CEO Calls 2.4bn Euro Deal a Mark of Credibility

Benoît Deper, founder and CEO of the Belgian space company Aerospacelab, has described a €2.4 billion contract to build 264 satellite platforms for the European Union’s IRIS² constellation as a “mark of credibility” and “seriousness,” adding that the deal is already drawing new clients to the company. The contract was announced at the International Space Summit in Paris on 10 September and represents the largest award in Belgian space history.

The Walloon firm was handed the contract by the European Commission, tasking it with producing 264 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite platforms out of the 348 satellites that will make up IRIS², according to RTBF. That accounts for roughly three-quarters of the entire constellation, as VRT NWS noted.

A Slow-Motion Victory

In an interview with RTBF published a day after the announcement, Deper said the win did not feel like a sudden triumph. “For us it’s quite strange, but since we’ve been working on the project for a year and a half, it wasn’t a binary victory,” he said. “We didn’t wake up one morning saying we’d won… It was a slow-motion victory over a few months, so we didn’t have that euphoria. We’re very happy, but we saw it coming.”

Deper said the contract has changed how the company is perceived by prospective customers. “We see quite a few clients or potential clients we were talking to who are now convinced of our relevance and see this IRIS² contract as a mark of credibility,” he told RTBF. “So yes, we expect knock-on effects and several very significant announcements in the coming months.”

He attributed the Commission’s decision to Aerospacelab’s ability to meet the programme’s demanding timeline. “I think we offered a solution matching the client’s needs in terms of time, performance and desired deadlines,” he said. “This is a four-year programme, which is quite unique for space programmes of this scale.” He added that the company was “very happy to have been considered in the tender with the same status as Airbus and Thales.”

What IRIS² Means for Europe

IRIS² — Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite — is the EU’s flagship effort to build sovereign, secure connectivity for its member states, Norway and Iceland by 2030. The programme is widely framed as Europe’s answer to Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite network, aiming to shield critical communications from foreign interference.

The European project was accelerated after Musk temporarily cut Starlink access to the Ukrainian army in late 2022, which jolted Europe into recognising its dependence on US private infrastructure for strategic communications, according to RTS. Unlike Starlink, which operates a massive commercial network of more than 11,000 satellites fully controlled by SpaceX, IRIS² is a public-service-oriented constellation of 348 satellites combining low, medium and geostationary orbits. Space expert Célestine Rabouam told RTS that low-orbit satellites provide “very fast links,” while medium and geostationary satellites “ensure service continuity over much larger areas.”

The political backdrop was on full display at the Paris summit. US space giants including SpaceX and Blue Origin reportedly boycotted the event, an absence that space policy expert Xavier Pasco described to RTBF as a “symbolic confrontation” reflecting transatlantic tensions over who writes the rules of space governance. Deper appeared on stage in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Charleroi’s Megafactory at the Centre

The 264 satellites will be built at Aerospacelab’s new “Megafactory” in Charleroi, which the company says will be the largest satellite factory in Europe. The plant will have 7,000 square metres of production space and a further 4,000 square metres of clean rooms, employ around 500 people and be capable of producing up to 500 satellites a year, making it the third-largest such facility in the world.

“We’ve already built the factory, we’re putting the finishing touches, but it will enter service in the coming weeks in Charleroi, and that’s where these 264 satellites will be built,” Deper told RTBF. “We had the luck to take the risk and have the risk followed by a massive order.”

Aerospacelab, founded by Deper in 2018 and headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert, currently employs around 500 full-time staff and expects to roughly double its headcount by the end of 2027. The company will keep its Louvain-la-Neuve site, which serves smaller clients, while the Megafactory is dedicated to IRIS² production.

What’s Next

Aerospacelab has committed to producing all 264 satellites by 2031, with the first delivery scheduled for June 2030. Other IRIS² contractors include Thales Alenia Space and Germany’s OHB, whose subsidiary Antwerp Space is based in Hoboken.

Deper dismissed any suggestion that the company might relocate production to cut costs. “No, first because it doesn’t match my values, and second because satellite production isn’t really dependent on labour costs,” he said, pointing instead to the quality of personnel and institutional support as deciding factors.

As Europe races to close the gap with SpaceX, the coming months will test whether Deper’s promised “knock-on effects” materialise — and whether a company that started as a Walloon start-up eight years ago can deliver at a scale never before attempted on the continent.