Laurent Jaffart, Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications at the European Space Agency (ESA), has spoken encouragingly about the UK participating in the EU’s IRIS2 super-constellation being assembled by the SpaceRISE consortium.
Jaffart was questioned on the possibility of the UK participating directly in IRIS2 during the Westminster Forum’s ‘Next steps for UK space policy, regulation, and sector development’ event. He said that such a collaboration “could happen”, but that the UK government must trigger a tie-up by reaching out to the European Commission (EC), which has overall responsibility for the project’s implementation.
He elaborated saying the possibilities for a tie-up include a technology deal, with Jaffart saying that the UK has “key technologies… that could be inserted in the design” of IRIS2 satellites. He explained that the UK’s participation would ensure IRIS2 is interoperable with EU and UK satellite systems, helping them to “act in coalition under NATO, for example”.
However, he also cautioned that the implementation of these technologies would likely come “towards the back end” of the IRIS2 design process, given the “lengthy” procedures required for the EU.
He also gave examples of current and previous collaborations between the UK and EU, including ESA’s testing of “militarized versions” of satellite components developed in the UK, including antennas and telemetry, tracking, and command systems. The pair successfully trialed this technology as part of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Skynet 5 and Skynet 6 satcomms projects.
