European satellite operator Eutelsat announced on Friday that it has signed an agreement with French aerospace startup MaiaSpace, entrusting the latter with future launch missions for its low Earth orbit satellites. This collaboration will provide Europe with significant strategic support, helping it catch up with U.S. competitor SpaceX.

The agreement with MaiaSpace is a multi-launch deal, with missions scheduled to commence in 2027. MaiaSpace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, Europe's largest rocket manufacturer.

Arlen Kassighian, Chief Engineering Officer of Eutelsat, stated that the partnership with MaiaSpace will serve as a complementary launch option alongside existing collaborators.

Eutelsat owns OneWeb, which is currently the only operational low Earth orbit satellite constellation operator globally besides Elon Musk's Starlink.

OneWeb is viewed as a strategic asset by Eutelsat's two major shareholders—the French and British governments—as its satellites can provide secure internet access to governments, military, businesses, and consumers in underserved regions.

French President Emmanuel Macron last year called for Europe to accelerate its space strategy to counter Starlink, and on Thursday indicated that France will speed up the deployment of low Earth orbit satellite constellations.

MaiaSpace is developing a partially reusable small launch vehicle, which will be Europe's first of its kind.

Reusable rockets help reduce launch costs while enabling higher launch frequency.

SpaceX's partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket has been in service for over a decade, and the company is currently testing an upgraded model—Starship—designed to be a fully reusable launch vehicle.

Ariane 6 is Europe's primary heavy-lift launch system but lacks reusability. SpaceX's rockets, with their high launch frequency, have successfully deployed over 9,000 Starlink satellites.

Eutelsat's recent satellite launch missions have relied on SpaceX and the Indian Space Research Organisation. Following Russia's special military operation against Ukraine in 2022, OneWeb terminated its cooperation with Russia, having previously used Russian Soyuz rockets to deploy its initial satellite batch.

Eutelsat completed its acquisition of OneWeb in 2023 and plans to launch 440 low Earth orbit satellites manufactured by Airbus in the coming years to supplement and expand its satellite constellation.

MaiaSpace, founded in 2022, is expected to commence commercial operations in 2026.