{
  "id": 13864496,
  "title": "Europe is looking for its \"Elon Musk\" for space travel and believes it has found him in a Belgian engineer",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/12/europa-sucht-seinen-elon-musk-fur-die-raumfahrt-und-glaubt-ihn-in",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-12T03:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "NZZ Wirtschaft",
    "slug": "nzz-wirtschaft",
    "url": "https://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/europa-sucht-seinen-elon-musk-fuer-die-raumfahrt-und-glaubt-ihn-in-einem-belgischen-ingenieur-gefunden-zu-haben-ld.10028156"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "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.",
  "summary": "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.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Business Standard IN",
        "title": "Elon Musk targets Ambani over Starlink's entry into India, alleges monopoly",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/elon-musk-targets-ambani-over-starlinks-entry-into-india-alleges",
        "published": "2026-10-09T17:31:41.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Economic Times",
        "title": "Elon Musk renews Starlink bid for India",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/09/elon-musk-renews-starlink-bid-for-india",
        "published": "2026-10-09T17:46:16.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}