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Resilience at constellation scale IRIS²: Building Europe’s Sovereign Connectivity

From Filipe Martins and Anna Kobylinska/Maria Beyer-Fistrich (Editor in Chief) and Veronika Maucher (Editor) 12 min Reading Time

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IRIS², a flagship EU space program, aims to deliver secure, resilient communications by combining low and medium Earth orbit spacecraft with protected terminals and trusted ground infrastructure. Europe is building federated sovereignty as a service.

Hermann Ludwig Moeller (right), Director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), alongside ESA senior official Eric Morel de Westgaver at the 20th ESPI Annual Conference in Vienna, October 2026. As a former ESA telecommunications strategy executive, Moeller was involved in preparatory work on the EU's secure connectivity initiative, a precursor to IRIS².(Source: European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), 2026)
Hermann Ludwig Moeller (right), Director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), alongside ESA senior official Eric Morel de Westgaver at the 20th ESPI Annual Conference in Vienna, October 2026. As a former ESA telecommunications strategy executive, Moeller was involved in preparatory work on the EU's secure connectivity initiative, a precursor to IRIS².
(Source: European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), 2026)

An intercepted link, a jammed gateway or a sudden surge in demand: secure communications require resilience at constellation scale and sovereign control. IRIS²—Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite—aims to deliver both. As the EU’s third flagship space program, following Galileo for satellite navigation and Copernicus for Earth observation, it adds secure connectivity to Europe’s strategic space infrastructure.

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