Rendering of the IRIS² constellation. Photo: SpaceRise

The SpaceRise consortium leading Europe’s IRIS² constellation is kicking off the procurement process for the ground segment. The European Space Agency (ESA) published the RFI announcement this week after recently publishing the procurement plan. 

SpaceRise plans to procure the ground segment through four lots: EU communication gateways; a cloud-native mission control center; a service lot to manage the service provision, and a control lot that includes the satellite constellation control center (S3C), overseas TT&C antennas, and the data backbone. 

According to the notices, the contractor in charge of the control lot will be overall responsible for the successful integration of the ground segment toward SpaceRise. This section includes overseas TT&C stations and sites. It also describes the S3C as a software-only component that will be deployed on top of virtualized infrastructure, with some security components.

The consortium is looking for wide participation from the European industry. Interested parties can formally express their interest to receive the full RFI information. 

IRIS² is planned as Europe’s third flagship space program after Galileo and Copernicus, using a public-private partnership (PPP) model for funding. It is planned as a constellation of 290 satellites in both Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) and Low-Earth (LEO) to provide secure connectivity services to the EU and its Member States, along with broadband connectivity.

The SpaceRise consortium in charge of delivering the system is led by Eutelsat, Hispasat, and SES. 

Last week at World Space Business Week, European leaders emphasized the importance of the constellation and the need for Europe to have these capabilities, but some said things need to move faster as Europe adapts to a more contested and fragile overall space environment.