Eutelsat is set to buy 229 additional low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites from Airbus Defence and Space for use by OneWeb.

The company signed an Authorization to Proceed (ATP) for the order at the International Space Summit in Paris last week.

It is in addition to the 440 satellites that had already been booked, bringing the number of new OneWeb craft to 669. Eutelsat said the total investment in the new 229 will represent around €1 billion ($1.1bn), consistent with the company’s financial framework.

“This is an exciting next step for OneWeb and for Eutelsat’s LEO strategy,” said Jean-François Fallacher, CEO of Eutelsat, in a statement. “With the first satellites from the 440 due for delivery and launch soon, our replenishment program is moving forward. The planned addition of 229 more satellites will further strengthen OneWeb, while IRIS² will bring significant new capacity and capabilities.

"Together, they give us a powerful roadmap to serve our customers, grow our LEO business and reinforce our role at the heart of Europe’s sovereign connectivity future.”

The new order will enable the expansion of the OneWeb constellation through its launch schedule through to 2034, ensuring continuity of service.

This new batch of 229 includes new digital channelizers to support onboard processing, as well as the ability to embark hosted payloads.

Eutelsat was transparent in its recent 2025-26 financial results about how much LEO revenues were now accounting for the company’s income, highlighting a 69.5 percent increase in revenues for the year, ending June 2026, for operations in the orbit year-on-year.

Eutelsat took the news as an opportunity to restate its commitment to the European sovereign IRIS² constellation, of which it leads the design, deployment, and operation of its LEO segment. IRIS²’s Ku-band constellation is expected to be operational by mid-2032, by which time it will provide more than twice OneWeb’s current capacity alongside new capabilities.

The new expenditure was already accounted for in Eutelsat’s financial reporting up to FY 2029.