[13][14] When the contract was signed in December 2024, the estimate had risen to €10.5 billion, of which €6.5 are public funds.
The latter's first launch, initially scheduled for the end of the year 2022, but subsequently delayed several times.
[citation needed] In January 2024, it was reported European space giants were putting the final touches on a common proposal for the sovereign broadband constellation amid the looming mid-February deadline to submit their best and final offer to the European Commission.
[26] The contract was originally scheduled to be awarded by the end of March but the European Commission appears to have put it on hold.
[27] In October 2024, the European Commission (EC) announced that the concession contract to develop, deploy and operate IRIS² had been awarded to SpaceRISE, a consortium of three European satellite operators— SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat— which would rely on a core team of 8 European space and telecommunications companies as subcontractors; they are Thales Alenia Space, OHB, Airbus Defence and Space, Telespazio, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Hisdesat and Thales SIX.