Europe is looking for its "Elon Musk" for space travel and believes it has found him in a Belgian engineer
The EU is giving the company run by Benoît Deper a costly vote of confidence: it is supposed to build over two hundred satellites to make Europe independent of the USA for communications. However, the company is still in the process of being set up.
The European Union has awarded a €2.4 billion contract to Aerospacelab, a Belgian company founded in 2018 by Benoît Deper, to build 264 satellites for a secure communication network, known as Iris2, to reduce dependence on the US. The project aims to provide a safe communication network for governments, military, and private companies.
Aerospacelab, which currently employs 500 people and has launched around 15 satellites, will build a new factory in Charleroi, Belgium, to fulfill the order. The company, likened to Elon Musk's venture, faces challenges, but Deper is confident in his vision of a vertically integrated company that produces as much as possible in-house.
Written by urgent.news from NZZ Wirtschaft's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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