IRIS2 will be used by governments and emergency services to respond during emergencies, the bloc said. Europe is strengthening its sovereign space capabilities with 66 new satellites as part of a new flagship constellation in collaboration with a consortium consisting of Airbus, Deutsche Telekom and Eutelsat, among others. The new additions will bring the upcoming IRIS2 constellation to 348 satellites and boost secure governmental capacity by 60pc in the EU, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. The constellation aims to help the EU reduce its reliance on US space-tech – dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink services – and enable emergency services across the bloc to respond to crises and protect essential infrastructure using its own systems. The future multi-orbit system will consist of 330 satellites in low Earth orbit and 18 in medium Earth orbit.